'Jersey Shore' star Mike 'the Situation' Sorrentino vows to 'come back stronger' after being sentenced to 8 months in prison


Talk about a hangover.

Jersey Shore star Mike “the Situation” Sorrentino was sentenced to eight months in federal prison on Friday in Newark, N.J., for evading taxes on the big bucks that the MTV reality show brought his way. Sorrentino pleaded guilty to the charge against him in January and faced a maximum of five years behind bars and a fine of up to $250,000.

Sorrentino’s rep gave the following statement to Yahoo Entertainment: “Mike accepts the court’s decision and looks forward to marrying his college sweetheart, Lauren Pesce, and moving forward together after serving his sentence. He anticipates to come back stronger as an individual and couple in the same healthy mind set that he has had for the last three years. He and Lauren are both so thankful for everyone’s support and prayers!”

The Situation, along with his older brother, Marc Sorrentino, were indicted in September 2014 for failing to pay taxes on $8.9 million he earned between 2010 and 2012. As the world remembers, the entire Jersey Shore cast was earning hefty paychecks shortly after the show premiered on Dec. 3, 2009.

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Mike “the Situation” Sorrentino and Lauren Pesce arrive at court Friday in Newark, N.J. (Photo: Elder Ordonez/SplashNews.com)

Adding to the brothers’ legal woes, they were indicted on additional charges — including more tax evasion, as well as falsifying records — in April 2017.

Both Sorrentinos initially entered not-guilty pleas but changed them to guilty in January, not long before their trial was scheduled to begin.As for Marc, he received a sentence of 24 months in prison and a year of supervised release after he leaves prison. He was ordered to pay $75,000 in fines plus an undetermined amount in restitution.

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The Jersey Shore cast supports Mike “the Situation” Sorrentino Friday at the New Jersey courthouse. (Photo: NorthStar/SplashNews.com)[/caption]

In court Friday, the Situation who now appears on the Jersey Shore reunion show, Jersey Shore Family Vacation, received support from his cast members, including Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi; newly single Jenni “JWoww” Farley; Vinny Guadagnino; Paul “DJ Pauly D” DelVecchio; Deena Cortese; Ronnie Ortiz-Magro; and Angelina Pivarnick. Of course, his fiancée, Lauren Pesce, was by his side too.

The Situation, who’s now sober, told reporters in March that he looked forward to moving past the case against him.

“It’s coming to an end and [I’ll] get some closure, finally,” he told reporters at the premiere of the Jersey Shore reboot in March. “I pretty much tried to better myself in any way possible while facing challenges in life. So at the end of the day, when that day finally comes, I did my best to be a better person.”

[Editor’s note: This post was originally published Oct. 5, 2018 at 4:14 p.m. ET.]

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