Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi is an open book on Jersey Shore, but when it comes to her relationship with Jionni LaValle, she prefers to keep things off-camera. “My husband, well, he hates being on TV,” Snooki told HollywoodLife EXCLUSIVELY while promoting her partnership with Cheez-It for its Reality TV Collector’s Cheddition boxes. “So I was like, alright, I see that. I respect that. I think the fact that that aspect of my life isn’t shown is nice. It’s private and it’s just us. When I come home, I feel like it’s just us and I don’t feel like a lot of people are watching. It’s just different than everyone else that does have their spouse on, which is nice, but I feel like this is what works for us.”
Once in a while, Snooki’s three kids — Lorenzo, 10, Giovanna, 8, and Angelo, 3 — will appear on-camera, but there’s a reason that’s few and far between, as well. “I don’t want my kids to get used to cameras,” Snooki admitted. “I want them to grow up to have the most normal life like I had. So here and there I’ll let the kids be on it, but not full time.”
However, after her nearly 15 years in reality television, she said that her role as a mom is the one thing that she doesn’t feel the cameras have truly captured. “It’s so hard to get my kids to film because they’re so busy with sports and schools and sometimes they don’t want to do it, so I’m not going to force them,” she explained. “But I’m really trying to show more of my mommy side. Like, the chaos of my house! It’s not just me going on vacation and drinking. I’m actually a functioning mom at home and I kill it. I’d want to show more of that. I just have to get all three kids at home at the same time and I want them to want to “work” with mommy.”
Snooki teamed up with Cheez-It in honor of 30 years of reality television. The brand has created two collectible boxes — one with Snooki’s face and one with RuPaul’s — in honor of the partnership. A limited number of boxes are available for pre-sale at CheezItHQ.com ahead of the official drop on Monday, Sept.19 at 12:00 p.m. ET. A limited of boxes will then be available each day until Sept. 23, as well.
“They asked me and I was so honored,” Snooki gushed. “Cheez-It is literally my favorite snack when it comes to being a mom, and for my kids, it’s their favorite snack. It’s always in the pantry. So when I showed them my face on the box they were like, ‘Mom, you’re so cool.’ They wanted to take it and show all their friends. So I’m honored to be on the box, but also just to celebrate reality. Obviously reality is my life, so it’s cool.”
See more of our interview with Snooki below or in the video above!
What brought you back after briefly leaving ‘Jersey Shore’ a few seasons ago? I feel like it’s just my life. It’s my job and the people that I do it with are literally my family. So when I decided to leave for a little bit, in the moment, I was like, ‘I need this, I need a mental break. I want to be at home with the kids and not worry about anything.’ But then a couple of months went by and I knew everyone was filming and I was like, ‘Hm…did I do the right thing?’ So I gave it a nice season off and I was like, ‘Alright, it’s time to come back.’ In general, it’s my life, everyone’s my family and it’s just hard to stay away.
Why do you think fans have remained so invested in ‘Jersey Shore’ after all these years? We’re crazy. We’re dysfunctional and you never know what’s going to happen with us. And WE never know! We go on these vacations and think it’s going to be a nice, smooth vacation and then we’re all killing each other, and then we’re fine and drinking and partying. You never know what expect with us. We feel that way just hanging out with each other. I feel like the unexpected…everyone still appreciates that. But also I still feel like we’re real in the sense that we say how we feel, we don’t sugarcoat anything. A lot of reality shows are not like that anymore. We still try and keep it as real as possible and I feel like the fans appreciate that.
Do your kids fully understand what you do? Lorenzo and Giovanna have seen all my YouTube videos and stuff like that. But I’m still going with the story that I’m an actress until they’re 18 and understand mommy was crazy before you guys! I’m just going to stick with that story. But they definitely know I’m on TV and they hate when I leave. I’m like well…lyou like your new Chromebook, right? Mom’s gotta work! I’m doing this for you! So they’re starting to understand. They get it. They know I’m not a normal mom.”
‘Jersey Shore’ has opened so many other doors for you like hosting and running your own businesses – do you see your life headed more in that direction or will you stick with reality TV as long as it remains available? We all said we want to do Jersey Shore until we’re in the nursing home in Depends. We want to go until forever — or until we have fans and people want to watch us. We’re down to do as much as we’re allowed to and MTV lets us. I would love to do reality forever. But, also, I like to not be part of on-camera and do behind-the-scenes stuff like my stores and my wine and stuff. I’d like to keep it all forever, so we’ll see. Hopefully we can do the show for, like, ten more years.