When the MTV show Jersey Shore premiered, it became a pop culture moment that introduced us to a wild group of 20-somethings spending their summer by the sea. Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino was easily one of the most fascinating characters on the show between his partying and his commitment to his GTL (gym, tan, laundry) routine. But behind the overblown reality TV persona, there was a real man who was battling some real demons. In his new memoir, Reality Check: Making the Best of The Situation – How I Overcame Addiction, Loss, and Prison, Mike details his years long battle with prescription pill addiction and other juicy tidbits about his life. Here are some of the book's biggest revelations.
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Mike developed an addiction to pills during the second season of the show.
In the book, Mike revealed that during the filming of season two of Jersey Shore, he used empty fat burner pills to sneak 500 Percocet pills down with him. When he ran out of his stash, he managed to find a tanning salon owner who became his new supplier.
"Despite being mic’d up and filmed twenty-four hours a day, I was able to silently communicate my wishes to the tanning salon owner, and the next thing I knew, I had a regular supply of pain pills delivered to me at the tanning salon," he wrote, according to People. "After I finished tanning, I would place his cash under the towel and go about my job with a fresh stash of pills hidden in my boxers."
When production found out, they tried to get him to switch salons, but he bolted for the supplier’s salon, and the team chased him.
One of his costars confronted him about his drug use — on camera.
Mike admitted that he tipped off Jenni "JWoww" Farley to his drug use when he offered her oxycodone while they were doing press for Jersey Shore. She then confronted him on-camera during the second season.
"MTV depicted our fight in such a way that the audience couldn’t tell what we were fighting about, but the truth is it was about my addiction and drug use," he wrote. "I don’t even think she ever specifically said 'drug addict,' as the whole subject was a gray area."
Mike admitted that Jenni's "calling me out came from a place of concern," but it didn't matter to him then.
He also detailed a legendary moment in 'Jersey Shore' history.
After he had run out of pills in Italy, Mike "was in a horrible mental space when Ronnie decided it was time to address his issues with me," he wrote in the memoir.
So he and Ronnie got into a physical fight, and Mike ended up head butting the wall "to show Ronnie how ready I was to throw down," which resulted in him needing a neck brace.
He also had a brief career as a stripper ... until he got caught.
Before his time on Jersey Shore, Mike thought he would give stripping a try as "a way to flaunt my God-given gift: my body."
Without his parents Linda and Frank finding out, he started stripping at Club Abyss in New Jersey. But then one of Linda’s friends told her that she had gotten a lap dance from her son, and that led him to an "early retirement from the stripping life."
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He got an interesting business proposition while in prison.
In 2018, Mike pleaded guilty to tax evasion and served eight months at the Otisville Federal Correctional Institution in Otisville, New York. He didn’t pay taxes on $8.9 million of his income between 2010 and 2012 on his brother Marc’s advice. "That single decision would plague me for years," he wrote.
During his time in prison, he met Fyre Festival founder Billy McFarland. "Billy actually DM’d me and asked if I wanted to work with him on his new venture," he wrote. He ultimately declined the business offer, however, because he didn’t want to be involved in the next Fyre Festival — sounds like his instincts were right on the money!
Mike's book is in stores now.
