Ronnie Ortiz Magro Makes Surprise ‘Jersey Shore’ Appearance

Ronnie Ortiz-Magro made a surprise appearance on Jersey Shore: Family Vacation nearly two years after leaving the MTV series to prioritize his mental health. “I feel like I needed a change of scenery and just a change of pace in my life,” Ortiz-Magro, 37, said in the March 23 episode, per E! News. “I’ve decided to move from Los Angeles to Miami and open up a new business. It’s a sneaker store called SneakerClinic.” Ortiz-Magro also revealed in his confessional interview that he now has full custody of Ariana, his 4-year-old daughter with ex Jen Harley. “It’s a lot of hard work, but she keeps me balanced,” he explained. “She calms my world. I didn’t have the perfect situation with her mother, but she’s turned out perfect. She’s so sweet and so polite.”

Ortiz-Magro might not have been able to build this father-daughter relationship if he hadn’t spent some time working on his own self-improvement. Over the past two years, he said he had been “in a bad situation and almost lost everything I built. “I almost lost my daughter,” he said. “I was in treatment for eight or nine months, but it helped me grow and it made me a stronger person.” Even though Ortiz-Magro has yet to confirm if he will appear again on Jersey Shore: Family Vacation, he teased his return to the shore in August 2021, telling TMZ Thursday that he hoped to be back on Jersey Shore: Family Vacation soon after he left the MTV show to focus on his sobriety and mental health after being arrested on suspicion of intimate partner violence earlier that year.

“I feel great. Four months sober. I quit drinking, got engaged, full-time father, you know, living a good life,” said Ortiz-Magro. “I stepped away to deal with my mental health, be a father to my child, be a fiancé to my woman. I’ll be back and, you know, all the fans love me, and I love them too, so I’m going to give them what they want, and I’ll see them soon.” After Ortiz-Magro was arrested in April 2021 in Los Angeles on suspicion of intimate partner violence with injuries and priors, Jersey Shore fans demanded he be removed from the show. While he avoided criminal charges in the case, his attorneys said in a statement at the time that he would seek help for “psychological issues” in the aftermath of the incident. Jersey Shore: Family Vacation airs on MTV on Thursday nights at 8 p.m.