There was a situation under the sheets.
At the peak of his fame, Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino was sleeping with a minimum of three women an evening — at the identical time.
“It was a slow night [if I had] a threesome, often after I was drained,” he told The Post. “But when I had my energy, which I often did, it could be upwards of six to 10 women within the room naked, willing to do … I suppose you possibly can, you realize, use your imagination.”
The Staten Island native, who grew up in Manalapan, NJ, became a household name from starring on the hit MTV reality show “Jersey Shore,” and took advantage of all that got here with it: money, drugs — and ladies throwing themselves at him.
“I remember in Las Vegas after we were bringing home about 25 girls.”
In his recent memoir, “Reality Check: Making the Better of The Situation” — How I Overcame Addiction, Loss, and Prison” (Ballast Books), out December 19, Sorrentino, 41, opens up for the primary time about how his lavish lifestyle almost cost him his life.
“It was just sex, drugs and rock and roll, day by day, on a regular basis,” he writes. “Men desired to be [‘Jersey Shore’ stars’] best friends, and ladies desired to sleep with us.”
Sorrentino’s drug of selection was the prescription painkiller Roxicet.
“At my worst, I used to be at 10 Roxys 3 times a day,” he said. “Now it is advisable to know what a Roxy is. A Roxy is [equivalent to] a 30 milligram Percocet. So if you happen to’re taking 30 of those a day, I think that’s 90 Percocet 10s you’re taking per day — which probably could kill an elephant.”
He was in a position to secretly get his fix even with cameras documenting his every move on the MTV series, which ran for six seasons from 2009 to 2012.
Within the tell-all, Sorrentino details his drug-procuring schemes, similar to having a salon owner put pills in his tanning bed and getting friends to wrap toilet paper around a bunch and leave them for him on the lavatory floors of nightclubs.
“I used to be mic’d 24/7, in order that it became like ‘Mission Unattainable’ to smuggle drugs,” he said. “And to be honest with you, I used to be very successful.”
When Sorrentino competed on “Dancing the Stars” in 2010, a dealer was sending him pills inside ink pens.
“We realized that if you happen to took out the center of a pen, you can put 25 little Roxicets in, after which we’d make packs of 4 pens, which could be 100,” he said. “You set a few pens and pads in there, we doing schoolwork.”
His fellow contestants on the ABC show marveled at Sorrentino’s lack of pre-performance jitters.
“I remember backstage, David Hasselhoff, Rick Fox … they’d be like ‘Mike, you’re so calm and funky, man. I wish I used to be such as you,’” he recalled. “They didn’t know I used to be high as hell.”
Even before he was famous, Sorrentino had already dabbled in — and dealt — illegal substances, smuggling 30 kilos of marijuana often from Brooklyn to Latest Jersey within the trunk of a automobile.
“I used to be actually a excellent drug dealer. I used to be a excellent earner. I used to be trusted,” he said. “I might get upwards of $100,000 price of product on consignment and I might have seven days to pay it back.”
Sorrentino and his crew had a plan in place to avoid suspicion.
“We’d bring three cars total: There could be a lead automobile, in the middle could be the automobile with the package, after which there could be the follow automobile,” he explained.
“If we did sense that there was a police presence, the follow automobile would act erratically. And naturally you’d think that the cop would go for the automobile that might act erratically and hopefully the product would get away.”
He and his friends also got their hands on blank prescription pads, allowing them to fill prescriptions for painkillers in pharmacies across the tri-state area.
“We were really deep in addiction and we actually didn’t take a look at the risks, reasonably the rewards,” he said of his pre-“Jersey Shore” life with pals. “And for probably months and months and months, we cashed in on probably dozens and dozens of prescriptions.”
Sorrentino, who was generally known as “Mikey Abs” in college (he attended Brookdale Community College and Kean College) for his impressive eight-pack, at all times hoped to in the future capitalize on his physique.
“That was going to be my ticket to stardom,” he writes.
He worked as a stripper at Club Abyss in South Amboy, NJ, but that stint got here to finish after he unknowingly gave a lap dance to his mother’s friend.
He later got signed by a “rinky-dink” underwear modeling agency and commenced attending go-see auditions.
At one in every of them, he spotted a flyer that read: “Casting Call for the Hottest Guidos and Guidettes,” to be held on the pool at Harrah’s Resort in Atlantic City.
“Everybody was really good looking, men and ladies,” he recalled of the scene — which was a casting call for the show, originally intended for VH1 and billed as “America’s Top Guido.”
“Everybody was shredded. Everybody had a six-pack. But then there was The Situation. My abs were just so ripped up you thought they were like implants. And I used to be a cut above the gang.”
When he landed a final interview for “Jersey Shore,” the producers asked if he had a nickname.
“I naturally said ‘Mikey Abs.’ And so they said, ‘You bought anything higher than that?’” Sorrentino recounted.
He told them that just just a few weeks earlier, while celebrating getting signed by the modeling agency, he bumped into a pair outside a nightclub.
“They walked by me and the girl was like, ‘Oh my God, take a look at his abs. ‘That’s a situation!’” he recalled.
“MTV said, ‘Oh my God, that’s good. Do you may have it trademarked?’ And as soon as I left the interview, I called my brother and I said, ‘Listen how do I trademark something?’”
After the success of the primary season of “Jersey Shore,” his contract made an “astronomical jump.”
“We’re talking a few million-dollar raise. I might eventually get upwards of near $200,000 an episode,” he revealed.
Sorrentino — whose lawyers and accountants later estimated he spent around $500,000 on drugs — was too preoccupied by his lavish lifestyle to listen to his funds, though.
In 2015, his accountant pled guilty to avoiding taxes when filing the fact star’s returns.
“On the time, I didn’t keep track of the cash coming in,” he writes. “I used to be so busy making the cash, traveling and fighting my addiction that if something had been done improper with the taxes on the business, I didn’t learn about it.”
After years of presidency investigation, Sorrentino’s reckless lifestyle caught up with him and, in 2018, he was sentenced to eight months in federal prison for tax evasion.
“I didn’t think they were gonna give me prison time. I used to be within the zone that beneficial for probation and community service, and I had no priors,” he said. “So that they made an example of me.”
Before he was locked up, Sorrentino tied the knot with Lauren Pesce, his college sweetheart, which was filmed by MTV. The primary time he saw the footage was at the Federal Correctional Institution in Otisville, NY.
“It was a really surreal moment, to be in prison and the prisoners watching me on TV,” said Sorrentino, who has two children — Romeo Reign, 2, and Mia Bella, 10 months — with Pesce and one on the best way.
While behind bars, he got a lot fan mail that, he said, the jail needed to shut down its mailroom for just a few days. “I couldn’t imagine it. I saved all of it because I used to be really touched.”
Sorrentino and his solid mates are already filming Season 7 of the reboot series “Jersey Shore: Family Vacation,” which debuted in 2018 — successfully turning “quarter-hour of fame into 15 years,” he said.
“On a every day basis, every time I get coffee or walk out into the general public, individuals are at all times asking for pictures and to call their mom on FaceTime.”
He’s also now not dodging police.
“Even when I get pulled over by cops,” Sorrentino said, “They ask me, ‘Hey, Mike, my wife loves you. Can we take a photograph?’”
