She’s out! Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi is retiring from the Jersey Shore franchise, opting out of the fourth season of MTV’s Jersey Shore: Family Vacation reboot.
The 32-year-old breaks the news on “It’s Happening With Snooki & Joey,” the podcast she hosts with friend Joey Camasta. “There’s reasons why I’ve come to this decision,” she says in the Friday, December 6, episode, segueing into her announcement. “It’s definitely a hard decision.”
“OK, you guys, I love you so much, and don’t hate me for my decision, but I have to do what’s best for me at the moment, and I am retiring from Jersey Shore,” she said. “I am not coming back to Jersey Shore [Family Vacation] for a season 4, if there is one. And there’s a lot of reasons why, but the main reason is really … I’m just like, I just can’t do it anymore.”
Saying that she tries to quit every time she films the reality show, Polizzi explains that her three kids with husband Jionni LaValle — Lorenzo, 7, Giovanna, 5, and Angelo, 6 months — were a big factor in her decision
“I hate being away from the kids,” she says. “I don’t like partying three days in a row. It’s just not my life anymore. And I wanna be home with the kids. You know, like, I don’t mind a here and there going to a dinner or whatever, but it’s just really hard on me to leave the kids and film the show.”
Polizzi also notes that Family Vacation has become too dramatic, perhaps referring to her and Jenni “JWoww” Farley’s epic showdown against Angelina Pivarnick in an October episode of the show. “You know, when I leave my kids and I film the show, like, I want to have a good time,” she says. ”And I’m putting myself out there, and I just wanna come off as a good person. And lately, on the show, it’s just been very drama.”
She goes on: “Our show, Jersey Shore, is about family, and about making fun of each other, and having a good time and laughing and just knowing that it’s all in good fun. And lately, it’s just like, everything is so serious. And when it comes to our show, it’s not about, like, ‘Oh, team this, team that,’ and then, you know, fans are against each other when it comes to a cast member.”
“It just now how the show works, and that’s how it’s becoming,” she concludes. “And so for me, it’s just like, I don’t want that, and I’m not leaving my kids for days on end when that’s the result of it. I just don’t like the turnout of it, and I don’t like the person I’m portrayed as.”
Snooki starred in all six seasons of the original Jersey Shore, all four seasons of spinoff Snooki & JWoww and three seasons of Jersey Shore: Family Vacation, which will return to MTV in 2020.
