'Jersey Shore' Star Mike 'The Situation' Sorrentino Spent 'Half a Million Dollars' on 'Reckless' Drug Addiction

Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino wasted $500k on drugs at the height of his addiction, RadarOnline.com has learned, with the Jersey Shore: Family Vacation star admitting he was "reckless" before cleaning up his life.

"I did spend about half a million dollars on cocaine and oxycodone," the MTV personality confessed following the release of his new memoir, Reality Check: Making the Best of the Situation — How I Overcame Addiction, Loss, and Prison. "When you think of that number, when you hear that number, that's a good college fund right there."

He said his vices were fueled by fame after he was thrust into the spotlight on the hit show, Jersey Shore, which first aired in 2009 and spanned a total of six seasons. "It was like gasoline on fire," Sorrentino explained.

"I was a young and wild, careless kid, and once you gave kids millions of dollars and Ferraris and Lambos and girls screaming my name and yes-men everywhere, it was hard to turn that off," Sorrentino told Entertainment Tonight. "That was my problem for many years — how do you turn off the excess? And I think it wasn't just my problem."

"Most people in our world or in the celebrity world or in the entertainment world, they have a problem turning off the excess button," he continued.

Sorrentino recalled going to rehab in 2015 and feeling like he was out of control. "My lowest was like a day or so before that, when I did something I never thought I was gonna do," he shared, referring to heroin. "I was desperate and I was in that hole."

While filming the show, Sorrentino also shared that he went above and beyond to conceal his addiction. "It was extremely hard. It consumed all my time, to try to get by MTV and production on how I was going to smuggle in drugs on a season," he admitted.

"The one in Italy was very, very risky because you're traveling across the country and I smuggled in a couple hundred Roxys in a shoe, in an Altoids case that I disassembled."

Sorrentino has since turned his life around, looking like a new man after serving prison time for tax evasion in 2019. He was sentenced to eight months in prison and two years of supervised release for his crimes.

Visit the all-new RADAR SPORTS for all the on and off-field activities of the biggest names in the games.

This upcoming December will mark eight years clean for Sorrentino, who recently announced with his wife, Lauren, that they are expecting their third child together.

"Good things come in threes. Adding another pumpkin to our patch," they wrote. "Baby #3 coming March 2024."