'Jersey Shore' star Mike 'The Situation' Sorrentino opens up on taxes, prison
'All that fame and everything and all that money happened so quickly... and I was not making good decisions.'
Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino, known for his party-hard lifestyle on the MTV reality show "Jersey Shore," recently completed an eight-month prison sentence related to a felony conviction for tax evasion.
Sorrentino, in an exclusive interview on "Cavuto: Coast-to-Coast," said substance abuse led him to make bad decisions and to prison almost eight years later.
“All that fame and everything and all that money happened so quickly,” he told David Asman on Monday. “I just didn't have my eyes on everything and I was not making good decisions.”
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At the height of the show’s success, Sorrentino was raking in close to $150,000 per episode — a whopping $1.8 million per season, Radar Online reported in June 2012. He also appeared on a number of other shows, including season 11 of "Dancing with the Stars" and "Celebrity Big Brother."
But ultimately Sorrentino doesn't place blame on anyone but himself for his problems.
“At the end of the day, you don't blame or point the finger at anybody. You must be accountable. And they were my taxes. They weren't done correctly. And eventually it led me to go into prison. It was that simple.”
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Sorrentino said he was clean and sober for three years before he even went to prison. But at the same time, he had the choice to become better.
“I had remained sober in prison, lost 40 pounds,” he said, “And now I'm able to close that chapter -- was able to pay my fines, my restitution, handled the whole situation with grace and class and now I can move forward with my beautiful wife and live my best life.”
Sorrentino said his wife, Lauren, stood by him and they rely heavily on faith in one another to move forward.