Ronnie Ortiz-Magro Calls Baby Daughter ‘Biggest Blessing’ Amid Relationship Drama

Ronnie Ortiz-Magro is loving life as a dad.

Prior to the Jersey Shore star’s first Father’s Day, he opened up about what it means to him to be a proud papa to daughter Ariana to PEOPLE at the Lunch with the Jersey Shore event at Little Dom’s restaurant in Los Angeles Friday.

“Every day she is changing so much,” he told the publication of his daughter, born to his and on-again, off-again girlfriend Jen Harley in April. “Now, if I stick my tongue out she will stick her tongue back out at me. It’s so cute.”

“I’ve had a lot of blessings in my life, but she is the biggest blessing of all,” he added.

The MTV cast member also revealed that after attending the MTV Movie and TV Awards Saturday, he would be headed home to spend time with his daughter on Father’s Day.

Ortiz-Magro and Harley have thrown themselves into parenting since Ariana was born on April 3, but their relationship has been tumultuous at best, as shown on the ongoing season of Jersey Shore Family Vacation.

In late April, after Ortiz-Magro was spotted on the MTV series cozying up to a woman he met at the club, the two engaged in a vicious social media battle, during which the reality personality accused the mother of his child of holding onto a sex tape with an ex, while she claimed the new dad was a “coke head.”

Ortiz-Magro later apologized, writing on social media, “I want to apologize to my family, friends and fans,” he said in a statement. “This is a private matter that should have never been made public. I remain focused on my daughter and she is my number one priority.”

The two reportedly tried to smooth things over once more, but have separated again amid more fighting.

During Thursday’s episode of Jersey Shore Family Vacation, Ortiz-Magro upped the ante by accusing Harley of cheating on him prior to getting pregnant with their daughter.

Harley opened up about the cheating allegations to Us Weekly following the episode airing.

“I’m sure he’s referring to when we were dating for about a month or two,” she said. “We hadn’t established a real relationship; my ex came back around. I had mixed feelings at the time.”

“We just got out of a four-year relationship. This is all part of the Instagram fight we got into because of this incident. When I came clean about this, he came clean about three times he hooked up with other girls in the same time period. We decided we wanted to be together and work though this and not to ever do it again,” she added.

Jersey Shore Family Vacation airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. ET on MTV.

Photo credit: Snapchat/Ronnie Ortiz-Magro