MTV shook up reality TV — and introduced fans to the GTL lifestyle (a.k.a. gym, tan, laundry) — in 2009 with the premiere of Jersey Shore.
The series quickly made household names out of stars Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi, Vinny Guadagnino, Jenni “JWoww” Farley, Angelina Pivarnick, Paul “DJ Pauly D” Delvecchio, Ronnie Ortiz-Magro, Samantha “Sammi Sweetheart” Giancola and Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino. Deena Nicole Cortese joined the cast during season 3.
In 2012, after six seasons, the cast left Seaside Heights, New Jersey, to focus on different projects. Polizzi and Farley starred on Snooki & JWoww from 2012 to 2015 and DelVecchio documented his DJ journey on The Pauly D Project.
Nearly a decade after the original show premiered, most of the stars reunited in 2018 for the spinoff Jersey Shore: Family Vacation. Giancola was noticeably absent when the new show began but has since returned for season 6 in 2023.
Scroll through the gallery below to see how each cast member has changed through the years:
At 29 years old, DelVecchio was the oldest member of the cast when the original show began. Throughout the show, he dated many women but never settled down. In June 2013, DelVecchio welcomed his daughter, Amabella Sophia, with Amanda Market. Following his time on E!’s Famously Single, DelVecchio dated Aubrey O’Day on and off from 2015 to 2017. The DJ has been in a relationship with Nikki Hall, whom he met on MTV’s A Double Shot at Love, since 2020.
DelVecchio has been starring on Jersey Shore: Family Vacation since 2018.
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When Polizzi joined the show at age 22, she came in as the party girl ready to have a good time. She quickly became best friends with Farley. During season 3, she hooked up with Jionni LaValle, a man she met at a club. In season 4, the two began dating and got engaged in March 2012; they married in November 2014. The two welcomed son Lorenzo in 2012, daughter Giovanna in 2014 and son Angelo in May 2019.
The Confessions of a Guidette author revealed in December 2019 that she was leaving the show, saying she wanted to be home with her kids. After skipping season 4 of Jersey Shore Family Vacation, Polizzi returned as a full time cast member for season 5 in 2022.
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Sorrentino entered the Jersey Shore house at age 27, introducing himself as “The Situation” — which was also the nickname for his abs. While he got into many fights with most members of the cast, he revealed an addiction to prescription drugs at the end of the series and entered rehab in March 2012. He left the center after only a few weeks and relapsed in 2015, entering rehab for a second time. He has remained sober since.
Sorrentino has also faced his share of legal troubles. In 2014, he was indicted for tax fraud. He pleaded guilty to one count of tax evasion and began his eight-month prison sentence in January 2019, two months after marrying Lauren Sorrentino (then Lauren Pesce.) Mike left prison that September. He and Lauren welcomed their first child, son Romeo, in May 2021 after previously suffering a miscarriage.
Mike and Lauren went on to welcome daughters Mia and Luna in 2023 and 2024, respectively.
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Cortese was a longtime friend of Polizzi and originally auditioned for Jersey Shore but didn’t make the cut. She joined in season 3, promoting herself as “a blast in a glass.” In 2017, she married Chris Buckner. The pair share two children: Christopher, born in 2019, and Cameron, born in 2021.
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Ortiz-Magro joined the cast of Jersey Shore at 24 and spent most of his time on the show in arguments with Giancola and Mike. However, his life changed in December 2017 when his girlfriend Jen Harley revealed she was pregnant. They welcomed daughter Ariana Sky in April 2018. The pair had a tumultuous relationship and both accused each other of physical abuse. In January 2019, Ortiz-Magro spent a month in a treatment facility for alcohol and depression.
Ortiz-Magro and Harley split for good in October 2019 after an altercation at an L.A. Airbnb. Ortiz-Magro was subsequently charged with seven misdemeanors including domestic violence, child endangerment, false imprisonment and resisting arrest. He pleaded not guilty but was ordered to stay at least 150 yards away from Harley and his daughter. In May 2020, the MTV star accepted a plea deal in the case and was placed on probation for 36 months, ordered to serve 30 days of community labor and pay $20,000 to a woman’s shelter.
The drama continued when Ortiz-Magro decided to step away from Jersey Shore: Family Vacation in May 2021, one month after he was arrested and released on $100,000 bond in Los Angeles. The Los Angeles Police Department confirmed to Us that his booking fell under “intimate partner violence with injury with priors,” referring to his previous arrests.
In June 2021, Ortiz-Magro proposed to his girlfriend Saffire Matos. “He knew that she was The One pretty much early on in their relationship,” a source told Us at the time. The twosome split in July 2022, calling off their engagement.
Ortiz-Magro returned to Jersey Shore: Family Vacation as a supporting cast member for season 7 in 2024.
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When Farley entered the Jersey Shore house at 23, she was in a relationship but it quickly fizzled out. During season 3, she met Roger Mathews at Karma, a nightclub in New Jersey, and they hit it off. The pair welcomed daughter Meilani in July 2014 and tied the knot in October 2015. They expanded their family with the birth of son Greyson in May 2016. Farley revealed that Greyson was diagnosed with autism in November 2018.
Farley filed for divorce in September 2018 and began dating wrestler Zack Clayton Caprinello the following April. Following a brief split, Farley revealed in March 2021 that Caprinello had popped the question and the pair were engaged.
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Pivarnick joined the show at 23, but did not immediately connect with the cast. In fact, she got in to many altercations with most members of the show, leaving the house multiple times through the series. However, she returned for Jersey Shore: Family Vacation. She married Chris Larangeira in November 2019.
In February 2022, Larangeira filed for divorce, citing “irreconcilable differences” which caused a “breakdown of the marriage for a period of at least six months.” Pivarnick soon got together with Vinny Tortorella, who proposed during an April 2023 episode of Jersey Shore: Family Vacation.
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At 22, Giancola entered the Jersey Shore house and called herself the “sweetest bitch you’ll ever meet.” She briefly connected with Mike, but ultimately decided to enter into a relationship with Ortiz-Magro. The two had a messy on-again and off-again relationship through the entire series and moved in together when the show ended. Eventually, they split and Giancola began dating Christian Biscardi in April 2017. He proposed in March 2019.
In April 2020, the couple postponed their wedding due to the coronavirus pandemic, and by July 2021, they’d called it quits. Giancola has since moved on with Justin May. The pair got engaged in March 2024.
After sitting out the first five seasons of Jersey Shore: Family Vacation, Giancola returned for season 6 in summer 2023.
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Guadagnino was 22 when Jersey Shore began. During the series, he became best friends with DelVecchio, and the two remained close through the duration and after the show ended. The two hosted a dating show, A Double Shot of Love, in 2019 — but neither found a relationship. In April 2019, he started a residency as a guest dancer at Chippendales in Las Vegas and later revealed he’d lost a ton of weight on the keto diet.
Guadagnino caused a stir in fall 2022 when he publicly flirted with The Bachelorette’s Gabby Windey while they both competed on season 31 of Dancing With the Stars. Guadagnino exclusively told Us in December 2022 that the pair “have great chemistry,” but they never became an item. (Windey announced in August 2023 that she has a girlfriend named Robby Hoffman.)
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