Mike, The Situation, Sorrentino recently guest starred on the “Sofia with an F” podcast, and what he admits to is shocking. If you are a Jersey Shore fan, you know that Mike is not afraid of sharing his past and his tribulations with his addiction on and off the show. The podcast reveals a lot of deeper truths behind the scenes of the show and it is quite shocking.
The podcast starts with Mike setting the scene of how he was growing up. He was the type of kid that you would tell not to do something and he “would do it twice and take pictures.” He recalls himself to be a leader, never a follower, and was the type of person who quite frankly, did whatever he really wanted! Before he became a star of Jersey Shore, Mike shared that he was a stripper, which we knew, but he was also a drug dealer. It seems that Mike was immersed in the drug scene a lot earlier than we might have thought while clubbing during the show.
There is a particular moment in the podcast in which Mike describes his first time trying heroin. He even recalls what he was thinking to himself before trying the heroin to which he said “once I cross this line I will never come back.” A truly heartbreaking thing to hear. After retrieving the drugs, Mike went home to continue fighting with his now wife who was fed up with his behavior to which he locked himself in a room to try what he had gotten. He took a ‘key bump’ and said that he didn’t like it and that he felt dirty, but ‘the devil’ told him to take another one. This is where he describes his ‘angels’ coming into the situation to save his life. Before taking it, his mother called and asked if he was okay while his girlfriend began to bang on the door at the same time. By the grace of God, Mike didn’t take the final bump, opened the door, hugged his girlfriend, and went to rehab the next morning. Going to rehab the next morning was Mike’s ‘final shot’. He had the government coming after him for past mistakes he had made pertaining to taxes.
But what was truly the craziest part of this podcast for me personally was when Mike described his usage during the show. We all know how much the cast enjoyed gym, tan, and laundry. It is one of the most iconic sayings that has carried on even into the new reboot of the show, “Jersey Shore: Family Vacation.” On the show, the code for getting drugs was “How many girls would be at the party?”, as in how many drugs can we get? This is where Mike would secretly get his drugs and ask how much he could get when he would go to the tanning salon. While at the tanning salon, Mike says that he “copped 50 packs of blues or oxycs. This was something that Mike never thought that Production would catch onto, however, Mike would be very excited to go tanning more than anything else throughout the day. Production knew that there had to be something else going on if he had such excitement to go tanning.
As a Jersey Shore fan who has read the behind the scenes notes and the production team member Reddit, this was incredibly interesting to hear considering that this particular code has never been revealed until now. It is so inspirational and powerful to see where Mike used to be versus where he is now. He is sober, healthy, a family man, and quite frankly, seems to be such a wonderful person. His story is so heartbreaking but it truly shows how low somebody could be/feel, but refusing to give up is what will bring you out of that dark space.
