Ronnie Ortiz-Magro made a mistake — and now, he’s facing the consequences.
Thursday’s episode of Jersey Shore Family Vacation picked up right where things left off last week: with Ronnie locked in the bathroom with a woman he brought home from the club in Miami. It’s unclear how long the two were alone for, but eventually Pauly “DJ Pauly D” DelVecchio decided to step in.
“Ronnie — it’s not worth it,” Pauly, 37, whispered repeatedly through the door until Ronnie, 32, emerged with the girl, insisting they were “just talking.”
After walking her to her cab outside, he came back inside and thanked Pauly for intervening.
“As soon as you knocked on the door I was like, ‘This is not a good move,’ ” he said. “It felt so good though. … It’s hard having a kid on the way and being with someone that you’re not sure you should be with.”
“It’s hard to just constantly say ‘No, no, no, no’ when it’s like, every girl in the club wants to talk to you,” he continued. “It’s like being in the money machine and the money is just flying everywhere and you’re just trying to grab all of it. That’s what it like. What, you’re just going to stand there? No, you’re going to try to grab all the money.”
At the time the episode was filmed, Ronnie’s girlfriend Jen Harley was seven months pregnant back in Las Vegas. The couple welcomed their first child, a baby girl named Ariana Sky, on April 3.
“The diapers are just getting tighter and tighter on me so I’m kind of just scared,” Ronnie admitted. “A lot has happened in the last six months. I found out that I’m having a child with Jen. Then it’s like, I have a baby shower coming and a lot of s— to take on in the matter of six or seven months. People deal with this stuff throughout years and I’m getting it just thrown at me.”
“I don’t know what I want,” he continued. “I don’t know if I’m ready for this yet. But I hope that me and Jen will work out — you know, for my own sanity, for the baby’s sanity, raised in a broken home. My parents weren’t together. I’ve learned from their mistakes.”
The night wore on and the rest of the cast retreated to bed, but Ronnie and Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi, 30, ended up staying up for a heart-to-heart.
“So she’s not the one, then?” Snooki asked.
“I mean … probably not, right?” he responded, sounding defeated. “You know that I was raised the right way and had waited so long not to have kids I am married and in a happy relationship — not to just have a baby’s mama.”
“This is not the Ron I know,” Snooki said. “What is wrong with you? What the f— happened to you? You’re being so negative. Why can’t you marry ?”
“Because she’s no …” said Ronnie, before trailing off.
Snooki took that as an indication that he wasn’t over his ex Sammi “Sweetheart” Giancola. (Their tumultuous on-again, off-again relationship lasted seven years, three of which were captured on the original run of Jersey Shore from 2009-12.)
“Because you f—ing love Sam,” she told him. “I can’t. Listen, you need to stop. Babe, get over Sam. It’s been f—ing 10 years. Why are we still talking about this?”
“I think I just miss the feeling of like, security,” he said. “Because that’s what she gave. And that’s so f—ing hard to find. And I feel like that’s why I am the way I am and will continue to be the way I am. … Every man wishes that he can be with the love of his life. Like, being with someone for seven years and then you don’t end up with that person? Yeah, it hurts.”
“All I can do is act happy and be the best father I can be,” he added with a sigh. “And at the end of the day, I’m still f—ing miserable.”
Ronnie went on to admit that he “rushed things” with Jen, who got pregnant three months into their relationship.
“If Jen was not pregnant, I don’t know if I’d be with her,” he said. “I don’t know what the f— I’m going to do.”
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But by the next morning, Ronnie had begun to regret his actions.
“I’m a bad guy,” he said, crying.
“Like right now, I’m just feeling like s—,” he continued. “I’ve been thinking about last night. I made a mistake. I f—ed up, and it’s something I need to tell Jen. I feel like it’s something that needs to be out there and I think that she’ll either respect me for that, or she’s going to leave me for it.”
“I have to talk to her because I feel like I crossed the boundary,” he said. “I crossed the line. There’s a very thin line of trust and respect and I feel like possibly I disrespected Jen and it doesn’t feel good. I’m definitely regretting everything.”
The only issue? Jen wasn’t picking up the phone — and the roommates realized that potentially incriminating photos or videos of Ronnie at the club might have surfaced on social media. (While filming, the cast doesn’t have access to their cell phones or the internet.)
“I’m just thinking the worst — the end of mine and Jen’s relationship, custody battles … just a bunch of s— that I don’t want to go through and I don’t want to put my kid through,” Ronnie said. “If she is done, it hurts. Because we’ve put so much effort in and for it to just go away so quickly, it’s kind of heartbreaking.”
Later that night, Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino called his girlfriend Lauren Pesce back home, who confirmed that she had seen “a couple videos of Ronnie dancing with a blonde girl in a see-through black dress” on Instagram.
“I’m f—ed,” Ronnie said. “Like, I’m f—ed.”
“Ronnie will always be the president of the IFF: the I’m F—ed Foundation,” Pauly joked.
Regardless of what went down in Miami, it appears Ronnie and Jen are still going strong, and the MTV star previously told PEOPLE his girlfriend was “very supportive” of his decision to film in Miami.
“She knows what my job entails, she knows that there’s hazardous things that come with the job,” he said prior to the season premiere. “My job is always going to be in the club, partying and being around girls. But at the same time, it’s how I come out of the situations at the end of the day that matters.”
“You know, it’s Miami — Miami is Miami,” he added. “And at the end of the day, I’m also filming a television show, so I have to do what’s going to get ratings. I’m going to have to put myself in certain situations, but it’s how I come out at the end of the situation that really matters. I have to do what I have to do. It’s a vacation, but at the same time it’s also a job. We’re working and we have to do what we have to do to entertain you guys.”
Jersey Shore Family Vacation airs Thursdays (8 p.m. ET) on MTV.