Jersey Shore: Family Vacation returned with the second half of season two on July 11 with a TWO hour episode! The first hour was mostly focused on Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino preparing for his impending court date, where he would learn his sentencing after pleading guilty to tax evasion. However, Jenni “JWoww” Farley was also going through a lot at the time the episode was filmed last October, as she had just recently announced her split from Roger Mathews. At first, she was super reluctant to even talk about what was going on at home. “I can’t figure out how to express it, so I just shut it out and move on,” she told Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi, Angelina Pivarnick and Deena Cortese.
However, eventually, she opened up to Deena while they were driving to a group dinner together. At first, the conversation centered around JWoww’s son, Greyson, who had just been diagnosed as autistic. “He’s hyper sensitive,” JWoww explained. “He’s always in flight or fight mode. He’s never able to express himself and he’s really tense.” In a confessional, she revealed that Greyson “threw the biggest fit he ever had in his life” while she was alone with him at the airport the week before.
“That, like, killed me,” she told Deena. “I have never experienced anything like that in my life. Greyson scratched his face, snapped my glasses, was head-butting me in front of everybody. He was hitting me, slapping me, biting. And i see people recording and I’m like…oh my God. F***ing help me! I literally looked at the agent like…can you help me? My son has no idea what he’s doing right now. He’s completely manic, freaking. I started crying on the line. I was defeated, done. I just started bawling and I walked on the plane crying the whole time.”
She also told Deena that her decision to get Greyson help for his learning struggles caused a “huge argument” between herself and Roger, because Roger didn’t want to believe that anything was actually wrong. “[Roger] had a nervous breakdown in the Pediatrician’s office,” she admitted. “My heart broke for him. He’s like…I just want my son to walk down an aisle and have a family of his own.”
In her confessional, she expressed how the pair’s disagreement over how to handle Greyson’s struggles took a toll on their relationship. “Roger believed that Greyson was just a slow learner and was going to learn on his own,” JWoww said. “And that caused a lot of tension in our household, because you have one parent that’s like…I need to get ahead of this — which is me — and you have another parent that’s like…what are you doing, it’s not a big deal, there’s nothing wrong with Greyson. So it’s a s***ty situation to be in.”
Of course, Deena was super supportive. “I can’t imagine what this girl is going through,” she admitted. “I don’t know how she’s doing it. I give her so much credit.” As for Jenni, she revealed that her focus was solely on Greyson and taking care of his future. “I’m going to hold his hand until I can’t anymore,” she confirmed. “And when I can’t hold his hand anymore, my money’s going to hold his and. I’m preparing, not for my retirement, but for my kids’ retirement.”