Paul “DJ Pauly D” DelVecchio believes the Jersey Shore’s pull will be too strong for Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi to ignore forever. The DJ believes Polizzi will come back to Jersey Shore Family Vacation, over a year after she said she was leaving the series. Snooki has been part of Jersey Shore since the original show launched in 2009 and starred in the first four seasons of Family Vacation.
While promoting his new show Revenge Prank with DJ Pauly D and Vinny, DelVecchio told Us Weekly they still talk to Polizzi “every single day,” even when they film new Family Vacation episodes. “She has, like, super FOMO [fear of missing out]. She’s in the loop on everything. So, to me, it feels like she didn’t quit. She’s there,” DelVecchio said. “I just hope that she comes back, and I think she will. I don’t know. We’ll see. I think she will.”
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Polizzi announced plans to leave the MTV reality show franchise in December 2019 to spend more time with her children. She and her husband Jionni LaValle are parents to Lorenzo, 8, Giovanna, 6, and Angelo, 19 months. “I have to do what’s best for me at the moment, and I am retiring from Jersey Shore,” Polizzi said on the It’s Happening with Snooki and Joey podcast. “I hate being away from the kids. I don’t like partying three days in a row. It’s just not my life anymore.”
Her decision to leave also came after the tense Season 3 finale in June 2019, in which she told her co-stars she was leaving after the fight during Angelina Pivarnick’s wedding. Polizzi also noted on the Mel Robbins Show she felt she was forcing herself to be happy when the cameras were rolling. “Like, I was forcing myself to be ‘happy,’ and I’m like, ‘That’s not me.’ I’m not genuinely happy,” she said in December 2019. “That’s when I’m like, ‘I’m out.’”
In the months following Polizzi’s decision, MTV renewed Family Vacation for a fourth season. Other members of the cast also said they hoped she would come back. Before cameras began rolling, Jenni “JWoww” Farley told PEOPLE there was “still hope” for her return. Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino said he tried to convince her to come back, but respected her decision.
Family Vacation was picked up for a fourth season in June and it premiered in November. In December, a source told Us Weekly Polizzi “moved on” from the show and is focusing on raising her family and her store The Snooki Shop. “She comes in almost every day and sometimes brings her kids with her, a source told the magazine.
