What's the point of Jersey Shore without Snooki? We're about to find out because Nicole Polizzi announced on Friday that she would not be returning to Jersey Shore: Family Vacation, MTV's reboot of the original series.
On her podcast, It’s Happening with Snooki & Joey, she explained why she would not consider returning for a fourth season, the status of which is unknown.
"The main reason is really … I just can’t do it anymore. Literally, leaving my kids to film it is really, really hard on me," she said. Polizzi and her husband Jionni LaValle share three children, Giovanna Marie (5), Angelo James (6), and Lorenzo Dominic (7).
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"I try and quit every single day," she continued. "I quit every time we film because I just hate being away from the kids. I don’t like partying three days in a row. It’s just not my life anymore. I want to be home with the kids. I don’t mind here and there going to a dinner or whatever, but it’s just really hard for me to leave the kids and film the show."
The original Jersey Shore documented Polizzi and fellow cast members Jenni Farley, Ronnie Ortiz-Magro, Mike Sorrentino, DJ Pauly D, Vinny Guadagnino, Deena Nicole Cortese, Sammi Giancola, and Angelina Pivarnick partying, hooking up, and generally being rowdy. When they all returned for Family Vacation, many of them had families or had settled down in some way, making the original premise less feasible.
"I just don’t like the turnout of it and I don’t like the person I’m being portrayed as," she continued. "This is getting a little too much. At 32 years old and with three kids, if I’m doing a reality show I just want it to be fun and light-hearted, and lately it’s not like that and the show is getting so dramatic."
While she promised it's not fully goodbye, Polizzi emphasized that it was time to move on because she has no patience for "the drama and the cattiness."
There are other reasons the show may have run its course. Sorrentino just got out of jail for tax fraud, and Ortiz-Magro has been in a public battle with the mother of his child, Jen Harley, having each been arrested for issues of domestic violence.
MTV did not immediately respond to Refinery29's request for comment.