The ‘Jersey Shore’ star opened up on the heels of his memoir, ‘Reality Check: Making the Best of The Situation,’ hitting bookstores.
via: Page Six
The “Jersey Shore” star opened up about the one of the lowest points of his life, explaining how starring in the hit MTV reality show from 2009 to 2012 helped fuel his drug dependency.
“I did spend about half a million dollars on cocaine and oxycodone,” he told Entertainment Tonight in an interview published Monday.
“I was wild. I was careless. I was reckless, and I fell prey to drug addiction.”
“I was into everything. I had everything on me at all times in my Louis Vuitton bag. Everything,” he added.
Sorrentino told the outlet that he would carry Xanax and Valium when traveling on airplanes and weed and cocaine when he wasn’t.
“My life was going by so quickly that, at the time, I made a mistake and I thought it was going to help my performance or my stamina, and for a little bit, I have to say, that it did,” he continued.
“But eventually I became dependent and I became addicted on these substances.”
The reality star, 41, admitted he was already addicted to drugs before filming “Jersey Shore,” but his addiction escalated once he started making excessive cash.
He recalled struggling to hide his habit from the production crew, explaining that figuring out how to “smuggle” drugs “consumed all [his] time.”
At one point, Sorrentino hid drugs in a shoe, which he “disguised” in a suitcase with about 20 other pairs, so that he could have his fix while filming in Italy.
Reflecting back to the Season 4 episode when he slammed his head into a wall while fighting with castmate Ronnie Ortiz-Magro, he said, “I was going through withdrawals at the time ’cause I had ran out of pills.”
Three years after wrapping the MTV show, Sorrentino hit his lowest point when he tried heroin in a “desperate” attempt to escape his depression, “anxiety” and “self-doubt.”
“I ended up trying a drug that I never thought I would try. A drug that kills most people. A drug that most people don’t come back from. A drug that I told myself that I would never do, that I thought was dirty. It was heroin,” he said.
He eventually checked into rehab in 2015 and has been sober ever since.
ET added Mike even recalled an “insurance policy” he had set up in case funds ever got too low, which is what he called a sex tape he kept on hand with his team just in case he needed to release it to bolster his bottom line.
Things were feeling so desperate at one point that he even told his mother and wife Lauren that he might have to dip into his “insurance policy.” He said, “We went down that journey of selling it and we decided not to.”
“Reality Check: Making the Best of The Situation – How I Overcame Addiction, Loss, and Prison,” which will be released on Dec. 19.
