When season four of Jersey Shore: Family Vacation premiered back in November, one cast member was noticeably missing.
Sure, fans knew that Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi had previously announced her retirement from the MTV series in December 2019, but for many, reality didn't set in until Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino, Jenni "JWoww" Farley, Paul "Pauly D" Delvecchio, Vinny Guadagnino, Ronnie Ortiz-Magro, Deena Nicole Cortese and Angelina Pivarnick all got together without the O.G. roommate.
Snooki stands by her decision, but as she told E! News' Carissa Culiner on Tuesday, Feb. 16's Daily Pop—taped prior to the mom of three's discovery that she had coronavirus—the show still holds a special place in her heart.
"Jersey Shore's been my life for ten years," Snooki explained. "And I loved my roomies, but I just needed—my soul needed—a break because the drama was getting too much. And I feel like I wasn't being the best mom that I could be to my kids."
There's certainly a lot of drama on the current season of Jersey Shore: Family Vacation—some of which has to do with the infamous speech Snooki, JWoww and Deena gave at Angelina's wedding. As fans surely recall, the trio delivered a disastrous toast when Angelina tied the knot with Chris Langeira, poking fun at their co-star and her hometown of Staten Island.
JWoww and Deena are still dealing with the fallout from the speech on Jersey Shore: Family Vacation, and to make matters worse, the latter was recently caught on camera with Mike discussing everything—including texts from JWoww that weren't meant to be public.
How, after so many years of filming, did both reality TV stars not realize the cameras were rolling? Snooki made sure to give E! News her take.
"Usually, when we're away on vacation, you have, like, our 'set,' which is where everyone is," she explained. "And then they were in the hallway, probably waiting to do interviews or confessionals, so they didn't realize that there was a camera on the wall...the way we shoot it, it's 24/7. So by the time you wake up—even if there's no physical camera guy in your room—they're getting you on the cameras in the ceiling."
Snooki is clearly well-versed in reality television, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that she's already dipping her toes back into the entertainment world as the host of Discovery +'s new special, Beach Cabana Royale.
"So three designers are flipping a cabana," Snooki shared. "I definitely put my two cents in, like, 'Oh, I would do a chandelier here and I would do this...' and they're like, 'Oh, that's a good idea.' But these designers aren't gaudy like me so they have, like, actual chic and modern designs you're going to see. But me, I mean, if I could make the whole thing leopard, I would."
Snooki's fans can also turn to TikTok to get a glimpse into her life. Find out what she had to say about filming fun dance videos with her 6-year-old daughter Giovanna by watching the complete Daily Pop interview in the above clip!
Beach Cabana Royale launches Tuesday, Feb. 16, on Discovery+.