Jersey Shore's Sammi 'Sweetheart' on having ex Ronnie at gender reveal party
'Jersey Shore: Family Vacation' star Samantha 'Sammi Sweetheart' Giancola is setting the record straight on the guest list at her gender reveal — she did not invite her ex Ronnie Ortiz-Magro.
'Umm, that wasn't my choice,' she told The Post.
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'It was basically like, he is part of the cast and I didn't really have a choice with that.'
Giancola, 38, had an on-and-off again relationship with Ortiz-Magro, 39, her 'Jersey Shore' co-star, from Season 1 of the original series, which began in 2009, until the couple officially called it quits in 2014.
4 Samantha Giancola's gender reveal, which will be shown on the next season of 'Jersey Shore: Family Vacation,' was held in Seaside Heights.
Getty Images for MTV
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After a decade apart, she came face to face with her former flame on the MTV show's spinoff 'Jersey Shore: Family Vacation' last year — and has accepted that filming with him is part of the TV gig.
'He's just a part of the group and I'm not going to exclude him, like if he's there, he's there,' said Giancola, who is engaged to former Karma bartender Justin May.
The reality star, who chronicled her IVF journey on the show, already knew she was expecting a boy prior to the reveal — which took place last month in Seaside Heights and will be shown on the next season of 'Family Vacation.'
4 The reality star announced her engagement to Justin May in April of 2024.
Sammi Sweetheart/ Instagram
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'When you go through IVF and you have embryos and you get them genetically tested, you do have the option to see what they are sexwise,' she explained.
'So I just knew when we put in the best embryo that we could … what the sex was because I looked, it was right next to it. But people do not have to know that. I just knew what we had.'
The Hazlet, NJ native went through 'multiple' rounds of fertility treatments, and admitted that she considered giving up.
'It's very hard when you're in the thick of it and things are not working out the way that you want them to. You almost are like, 'I don't know if I can go through this again,' because it definitely takes its toll mentally and physically on your body.'
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4 Giancola's 'Jersey Shore' castmates attended her bridal shower at Clarizio's Italian Ristorante in Freehold.
Samantha Giancola
The mom-to-be, who is due in August, also dished on the food she's been craving most during her pregnancy.
'My thing is dino nuggets. I would never eat that prior,' she said.
'I like to say I'm a pretty healthy person, but now that I'm pregnant … everything fried and gross, like everything that's not good for you, I crave.'
She's been having a yen for sweets too, and as luck would have it, her co-star Mike 'The Situation' Sorrentino just became the co-owner of Bang Cookies.
'He's been sending me cookies and I've been obsessed with them. I can't get enough,' she said.
As for baby names, the couple doesn't have one picked out for their little one just yet — so guests at Giancola's baby shower, which was held at Clarizio's Italian Ristorante in Freehold earlier this month — were asked to help.
4 Spencer's gifted Giancola's son his own duck phone.
Samantha Giancola
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'I even did a little station that was name suggestions because we just have no idea what we're gonna name this baby,' she confessed.
Besides filming 'Family Vacation,' Giancola is planning her wedding and opening a second location of her clothing store Sweetheart Coast in Atlantic City, so hasn't had time to set up the baby's nursery.
'I'm so far behind. I just feel like I've been so busy,' she told The Post. 'There's getting ready for a baby, wedding planning. I have two stores on top of filming. So there's just a lot going on right now.'
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Although his room may not be ready yet, Giancola's little meatball already has a piece of 'Jersey Shore' merch to decorate it with.
'Spencer's just came out with a whole bunch of 'Jersey Shore' stuff,' she explained. 'So we went to Spencer's corporate the other day and I got a stuffed animal duck phone for the baby's nursery.'
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Discussion and legislation help, but Stoner has a practical and actionable plan. They created the Artist Wellbeing Essentials, a toolkit for performers and parents to learn about the pitfalls and potential risks they may face. It's made up of over 50 videos about specific experiences that performers go through, from learning to get into and out of character to managing audition rejection, and how they may affect other areas of their lives, like finances and education. 'I'm hoping [that material] is something that becomes standardized as a preventative resource, just like anyone would get if they're onboarding to a new job,' they say. Maybe Stoner's desire to stay in and overhaul an industry they 'narrowly survived' is less of an act of defiance than a genuine calling. Destiny is rarely this apparent outside of the Disney movies Stoner once acted in, but their real-life story is far more compelling.
