The Jersey Shore star is giving back to the community by co-sponsoring an addiction treatment scholarship and sharing his story with recovery groups.
Reality television star Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino marked his third year of sobriety by bringing holiday meals to individuals in recovery. The Jersey Shore mainstay issued the news via his Instagram page on December 22, where a photo of Sorrentino at Phoenix Recovery House in Eatontown, New Jersey was posted.
Despite an impending stay in prison for tax evasion, which will begin in January 2019, Sorrentino has emphasized the positive on his own social media as well as that of the Discovery Institute for Addictive Disorders, a treatment center with which he’s partnered to form a scholarship for individuals battling substance dependency.
Sorrentino, who struggled with dependency on prescription medication in 2012 and 2015, underwent inpatient and outpatient stays at the Discovery Institute and has continued to work with the non-profit as a speaker at recovery groups. He is also the co-sponsor of Giving Tree, a scholarship program for individuals who lack the funds to go to treatment for drug or alcohol dependency.
Sobriety was hard fought for Sorrentino at the height of his heyday on the MTV reality series. “I was known to be one of the bigger partiers on Jersey Shore,” he said on a video posted on Discovery Institute’s Instagram page.
“I’ll be honest. I hated everything about addiction treatment,” he said at a support group meeting earlier this year. “But I wanted better for myself and I was going to be do whatever it takes to get there.”
With the support of his wife, Lauren Pesce, whom he married in November 2018, Sorrentino has remained sober after his return to television with Jersey Shore: Family Vacation. “Being sober really taught me how to just be at peace,” he said in a 2017 E! News interview. “I live my life today at peace. . . . I mean, everything in my life has changed.”
Sorrentino will begin an eight-month prison sentence for tax evasion on $9 million in income on or after January 15, 2019; the sentence also comes with two years of supervised probation.
After receiving the sentence in October 2018, Pesce addressed the issue in a post on her Instagram page. “Thank you for all of your messages of love and support,” she wrote. “We are happy to put an end to this chapter and excited to move forward in our future.”
