REALITY TV'Jersey Shore: Family Vacation' Cast Reacts To Ronnie Ortiz-Magro's Domestic Violence Arrest In New Season Premiere: 'Unbelievable'
Jan. 7 2022, Published 9:34 a.m. ET
The new season of Jersey Shore: Family Vacation is starting off with a bang.
In the season five premiere of the Jersey Shore spinoff — which aired Thursday, January 6 — the cast learned about Ronnie Ortiz-Magro's recent arrest for the first time. As OK! reported, the reality star, 36, was arrested back in April 2021 on domestic violence charges.
In the new episode, Ortiz-Magro's pals are seen reacting to the shocking arrest, with fan-favorite cast member DJ Pauly D calling the incident "unbelievable."
"It's really sad," his costar Angelina Pivarnick expressed in her confessional on the show. "The whole thing with Ron is just so sad."
"I don't even know how we're gonna handle it going forward," TV personality Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino added during a conversation with his wife, Lauren Pesce. "This is not good."
"I just think it's going around the same mountain over and over again, making the same mistakes," Sorrentino — who has battled his own issues with substance abuse — stated. "And we know nothing changes if nothing changes."
"I think you have to go to treatment," he continued. "You have to make a change You have to have accountability."
"Obviously he needs help," Pesce added.
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- Ronnie Ortiz-Magro 'Not Filming' New Season Of 'Jersey Shore: Family Vacation' With Cast Following Domestic Violence Arrest
"These allegations, whatever happened, are pretty serious," Vinny Guadagnino candidly pointed out in a confessional during the new episode. "He needs to take time to himself and figure himself out and I just hope he gets better and I hope one of these times that he works on himself actually sticks."
Ortiz-Magro's cast members also wondered at the time whether the arrest meant he would be throwing away his plans to propose to then-girlfriend Saffire Matos, which he gushed to his pals about earlier in the episode. (The pair ended up getting engaged months later after the New York native popped the question in June 2021.)
Roughly a month after his arrest, it was determined that the criminal charges were not warranted, and Ortiz-Magro was not charged for the alleged incident — however, he still insisted on taking a break from the MTV show.
"After talking to the team at MTV, we have mutually agreed that I will step away from the show while I seek medical treatment for mental health issues that I've ignored for too long," he announced via Instagram at the time. "My number one goal now is facing my struggles head on. This process will be difficult, but my #1 priority is to get healthy and be the best man and the best father I can for my daughter."
Ortiz-Magro shares 3-year-old daughter Ariana with ex Jen Harley.
In August, Ortiz-Magro announced he was on the road to recovery after being four months sober and claimed to be making a return to Jersey Shore: Family Vacation. However, it is still unclear whether the TV personality will be appearing in the show's fifth season as a regular cast member.
