Sammi ‘Sweetheart’ Giancola: Ex Ronnie Ortiz-Magro feels like a ‘co-worker’ amid ‘Jersey Shore’ return

Reality TV

Sammi “Sweetheart” Giancola says Ronnie Ortiz-Magro feels more like a colleague than an ex-boyfriend as she makes her return to the new season of “Jersey Shore Family Vacation.”

“It’s just like a co-worker at this point,” Giancola tells Page Six’s Evan Real and Danny Murphy as part of our new video series, “24 Hours.”

After taking an 11-year hiatus from the hit MTV show, Giancola gushes that she’s “personally in a great place” after reuniting with Ortiz-Magro, with whom she had a tumultuous five-year relationship.

“I’m kind of, like, moved on from that vibe. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like that vibe. So I kind of do my own thing and, like, keep it at that,” she says of her ex.

While she keeps tight-lipped on her interactions with her ex, she says she “wish[es] him the best” as long as “whatever he’s doing is positive.”


Sammi "Sweetheart" Giancola posing for a photo
Sammi “Sweetheart” Giancola tells Page Six that her ex-boyfriend Ronnie Ortiz-Magro feels like a “co-worker” amid her “Jersey Shore Family Vacation” return.
Tamara Beckwith/NY POST

Ronnie Ortiz-Magro and Sammi "Sweetheart" Giancola posing for a red carpet together
“I’m kind of, like, moved on from that vibe,” she tells Page Six of her ex.
Getty Images

Ortiz-Magro, 37, also returned to the show in a reduced role after a brief hiatus to focus on his sobriety and mental health.

“A lot of people forget I dated him when I was in my younger 20s,” she points out. “I’m 36, I dated multiple people after him, I’ve gone through life, so yeah it’s just like a co-worker at this point.”

Giancola gave the show another chance after becoming “more mature” and having the ability to “handle situations differently than when I was 22 years old.”


Sammi Giancola and Ronnie Ortiz-Magro posing for a photo together
The exes’ five-year rocky relationship played out on several seasons of “Jersey Shore.”
Kevin Mazur

“I’m just hoping that all goes well this time around. And if it doesn’t,” she says with a laugh, “I’ll just leave again.”

Giancola and Ortiz-Magro had a volatile relationship when they dated on-and-off for five years before calling it quits for good in 2014.

The reality TV alum was persuaded to return to the “Jersey Shore” spin-off by Angelina Pivarnick.


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“I like that I was actually able to pull it off and everybody else couldn’t,” Pivarnick, 37, boasts, referring to other cast members attempting and failing to get Giancola to come back. “She and I always had a bond.”

Giancola admits that her return to the show was “definitely overwhelming,” and she couldn’t help but ask herself, “What am I doing? What am I getting myself into?”


Angelina Pivarnick, Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi, Jenni "JWoww" Farley, Sammi Sweetheart Giancola, Vinny Guadagnino, Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino Deena Nicole Cortese posing for a photo together
Giancola stunned both fans and co-stars when she rejoined the cast after an 11-year break.
Tamara Beckwith/NY POST

A selfie of Sammi Giancola
“It just feels good to be back in that environment, having fun with everybody,” she gushes.
Instagram/sammisweetheart

Despite her decade-long absence, Giancola gushes that as soon as she began filming, it felt “like I never left.”

“It just feels good to be back in that environment, having fun with everybody,” she tells us. “I really enjoyed bonding with the girls again. That was a cross off my checklist, because I really missed out on those friendships for so long.”

“Jersey Shore Family Vacation” Season 6B premieres Thursday at 8 p.m. ET on MTV.

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