'Jersey Shore' star Ronnie Ortiz-Magro: I went to rehab for alcoholism, depression
Ronnie Ortiz-Magro attends the premiere of "Jersey Shore: Family Vacation" on March 29, 2018, in Los Angeles. Credit: Invision/AP / Willy Sanjuan
"Jersey Shore: Family Vacation" star Ronnie Ortiz-Magro says he has completed an inpatient stint to treat his alcoholism and depression.
"I decided to go to treatment because I wanted to be a better person, a better father for my daughter," the Bronx-born Ortiz-Magro, 33, told Us Weekly in an article posted Tuesday. He said he had spent approximately 30 days at the rehab facility Headwaters at Origins in West Palm Beach, Florida, where a month's treatment costs $75,000, according to Rehab.com.
"Eventually, all the bad decisions I was making were going to lead me to places that I didn't want to be," he continued. "I wanted to be led to the place that I am now — that's happy, healthy and the best role model for my daughter," 10-month-old Ariana, with on-again, off-again girlfriend Jen Harley.
In an accompanying video, Ortiz-Magro said he had been "just making the wrong decisions, and I was very depressed. And when I was depressed I would just turn to drinking. And when I would drink, bad things would just continue to happen because I wasn't reacting the way I should."
He acknowledged that alcoholism is "a chronic disease, it's a progressive disease. I'm still struggling. I'm going to struggle for the rest of my life. . . . Y'know, I would work out and get healthy, whether you're filming or traveling, and then all of a sudden, you start up again and it's worse than when you stopped. And then you stop and then you start up again and it's worse than when you stop[ped]. And you're just, like, 'Wow, like, I thought I had this under control.' But at the end of the day it has full control over you."
