Why Did Ronnie Ortiz-Magro Leave Family Vacation & What Made Him Return?

The reason that Ronnie Ortiz-Magro returned to “Jersey Shore: Family Vacation” (a year sober, he says) in Season 6 was to make amends with his former roommates. Before he did this, Ortiz-Magro first met with Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino, whom he had been in contact with. 

“There’s always check-ins over the past couple of years. He’s been absent. He has been addressing his mental health. Things started to go in a positive direction,” Sorrentino says of Ortiz-Magro during part two of the “Family Vacation” reunion. “We didn’t know that [Sammi “Sweetheart” Giancola] was going to come back, so once she did come back, it was a scramble to try to maneuver this very delicate situation.” Giancola, Ortiz-Magro’s ex, made her return to “Jersey Shore” in Season 6 for the first time in nearly a decade, only after he departed from the show, having opted out to avoid any potentially toxic situations with her ex.

In the episode of “Family Vacation” titled “Frozen Pizza and Margaritas,” Ortiz-Magro attends a family meeting with the rest of the Guidos (sans Sammi), prewritten apology in hand, to address his past behavior, his regrets, and the events that led to his leaving the show. “I take a lot of responsibility for the things that I’ve done, not only in the last two years but in the past before that. It wasn’t the best version of me as a man, as a person, as a friend,” he says as part of his apology, which is met with tears from the fam.