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Mike ‘The Situation’ Sorrentino reveals orgies, addiction in memoir

One of the stars of hit series Jersey Shore has revealed their wild orgy obsession, declaring, “It was a slow night if I had a threesome.”

Mike ‘The Situation’ Sorrentino has opened up about his addiction struggles in his new memoir. Picture: MTV
Mike ‘The Situation’ Sorrentino has opened up about his addiction struggles in his new memoir. Picture: MTV

There was a situation under the sheets.

At the height of his fame, Mike ‘The Situation’ Sorrentino was sleeping with a minimum of three women a night — at the same time.

“It was a slow night [if I had] a threesome, usually when I was tired,” he told The Post. “But if I had my energy, which I usually did, it would be upwards of six to 10 women in the room naked, willing to do … I guess you can, you know, use your imagination.”

The Staten Island native, who grew up in Manalapan, New Jersey, became a household name from starring on the hit MTV reality show Jersey Shore, and took advantage of all that came with it: money, drugs — and ladies throwing themselves at him.

“I remember in Las Vegas when we were bringing home about 25 girls.”

Mike ‘The Situation’ Sorrentino has opened up about his various addiction struggles in his memoir. Picture: Neilson Barnard/Getty Images
Mike ‘The Situation’ Sorrentino has opened up about his various addiction struggles in his memoir. Picture: Neilson Barnard/Getty Images

In his new memoir, Reality Check: Making the Best of The SituationHow I Overcame Addiction, Loss, and Prison (Ballast Books), out December 19, Sorrentino, 41, opens up for the first time about how his lavish lifestyle almost cost him his life.

“It was just sex, drugs and rock and roll, every day, all the time,” he writes. “Men wanted to be [‘Jersey Shore’ stars’] best friends, and women wanted to sleep with us.”

Sorrentino’s drug of choice was the prescription painkiller Roxicet.

“At my worst, I was at 10 Roxys three times a day,” he said. “Now you need to know what a Roxy is. A Roxy is [equivalent to] a 30 milligram Percocet. So if you’re taking 30 of those a day, I believe that’s 90 Percocet 10s you’re taking per day — which probably could kill an elephant.”

Sorrentino pictured with co-star Snooki. Picture: MTV
Sorrentino pictured with co-star Snooki. Picture: MTV

He was able to secretly get his fix even with cameras documenting his every move on the MTV series, which ran for six seasons from 2009 to 2012.

In the tell-all, Sorrentino details his drug-procuring schemes, such as having a salon owner put pills in his tanning bed and getting friends to wrap toilet paper around a bunch and leave them for him on the bathroom floors of nightclubs.

“I was mic’d 24/7, so that it became like ‘Mission Impossible’ to smuggle drugs,” he said. “And to be honest with you, I was very successful.”

When Sorrentino competed on Dancing the Stars in 2010, a dealer was sending him pills inside ink pens.

“We realised that if you took out the guts of a pen, you could put 25 little Roxicets in, and then we would make packs of four pens, which would be 100,” he said. “You put a couple of pens and pads in there, we doing schoolwork.”

His fellow contestants on the ABC show marvelled at Sorrentino’s lack of pre-performance jitters.

“I remember backstage, David Hasselhoff, Rick Fox … they’d be like ‘Mike, you’re so calm and cool, man. I wish I was like you,‘” he recalled. “They didn’t know I was high as hell.”

Even before he was famous, Sorrentino had already dabbled in — and dealt — illegal substances, smuggling 13.6kg of marijuana regularly from Brooklyn to New Jersey in the trunk of a car.

“I was actually a very good drug dealer. I was a very good earner. I was trusted,” he said. “I would get upwards of $100,000 worth of product on consignment and I would have seven days to pay it back.”

Sorrentino and his crew had a plan in place to avoid suspicion.

“We would bring three cars total: There would be a lead car, in the centre would be the car with the package, and then there would be the follow car,” he explained.

“If we did sense that there was a police presence, the follow car would act erratically. And naturally you would think that the cop would go for the car that would act erratically and hopefully the product would get away.”

He and his friends also got their hands on blank prescription pads, allowing them to fill prescriptions for painkillers in pharmacies around the tri-state area.

“We were really deep in addiction and we really didn’t look at the risks, rather the rewards,” he said of his pre-Jersey Shore life with pals. “And for probably months and months and months, we cashed in on probably dozens and dozens of prescriptions.”

Sorrentino, who was known as “Mikey Abs” in college (he attended Brookdale Community College and Kean College) for his impressive eight-pack, always hoped to one day capitalise on his physique.

“That was going to be my ticket to stardom,” he writes.

He worked as a stripper at Club Abyss in South Amboy, NJ, but that stint came to end after he unknowingly gave a lap dance to his mother’s friend.

He later got signed by a “rinky-dink” underwear modelling agency and began attending go-see auditions.

At one of them, he spotted a flyer that read: “Casting Call for the Hottest Guidos and Guidettes,” to be held at the pool at Harrah’s Resort in Atlantic City.

“Everybody was really good looking, men and women,” he recalled of the scene — which was a casting call for the show, originally intended for VH1 and billed as “America’s Top Guido.”

“Everybody was shredded. Everybody had a six-pack. But then there was The Situation. My abs were just so ripped up you thought they were like implants. And I was a cut above the crowd.”

When he landed a final interview for Jersey Shore, the producers asked if he had a nickname.

“I naturally said ‘Mikey Abs.’ And they said, ‘You got anything better than that?’” Sorrentino recounted.

He told them that just a few weeks earlier, while celebrating getting signed by the modelling agency, he ran into a couple outside a nightclub.

“They walked by me and the girl was like, ‘Oh my God, look at his abs. ‘That’s a situation!’” he recalled.

“MTV said, ‘Oh my God, that is brilliant. Do you have it trademarked?’ And as soon as I left the interview, I called my brother and I said, ‘Listen how do I trademark something?’”

Jersey Shore was a massive TV hit.
Jersey Shore was a massive TV hit.

After the success of the first season of Jersey Shore, his contract made an “astronomical jump.”

“We’re talking about a million-dollar raise. I would eventually get upwards of close to $200,000 an episode,” he revealed.

Sorrentino — whose lawyers and accountants later estimated he spent around $500,000 on drugs — was too preoccupied by his lavish lifestyle to pay attention to his finances, though.

In 2015, his accountant pleaded guilty to avoiding taxes when filing the reality star’s returns.

“At the time, I didn’t keep track of the money coming in,” he writes. “I was so busy making the money, travelling and fighting my addiction that if something had been done wrong with the taxes at the business, I didn’t know about it.”

After years of government investigation, Sorrentino’s reckless lifestyle caught up with him and, in 2018, he was sentenced to eight months in federal prison for tax evasion.

“I didn’t think they were gonna give me prison time. I was in the zone that recommended for probation and community service, and I had no priors,” he said. “So they made an example of me.”

Before he was locked up, Sorrentino tied the knot with Lauren Pesce, his college sweetheart, which was filmed by MTV. The first time he saw the footage was at the Federal Correctional Institution in Otisville, NY.

Sorrentino is now happily married to wife Lauren Pesce. Picture: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images
Sorrentino is now happily married to wife Lauren Pesce. Picture: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images

“It was a very surreal moment, to be in prison and the prisoners watching me on TV,” said Sorrentino, who has two children — Romeo Reign, 2, and Mia Bella, 10 months — with Pesce and one on the way.

While behind bars, he got so much fan mail that, he said, the jail had to shut down its mailroom for a few days. “I couldn’t believe it. I saved all of it because I was really touched.”

Sorrentino and his cast mates are already filming Season 7 of the reboot series Jersey Shore: Family Vacation, which debuted in 2018 — successfully turning “15 minutes of fame into 15 years,” he said.

“On a daily basis, whenever I get coffee or walk out into the public, people are always asking for pictures and to call their mum on FaceTime.”

He’s also no longer dodging police.

“Even if I get pulled over by cops,” Sorrentino said, “They ask me, ‘Hey, Mike, my wife loves you. Can we take a photo?’”

This story originally appeared on New York Post and was reproduced with permission

Original URL: https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/books-magazines/books/mike-the-situation-sorrentino-reveals-orgies-addiction-in-memoir/news-story/98536f77477c67bd5356a6135b55c52e