Sammi Giancola calls her ex Ronnie Ortiz-Magro her 'coworker' after returning to 'Jersey Shore: Family Vacation'

• Sammi Giancola reunited with her "Jersey Shore" castmates during season six of "Family Vacation."
• This was the first time Giancola had appeared on the show since it began in 2018.
• Joining the cast meant she had to see her ex, Ronnie Ortiz-Magro, for the first time in years.

On Thursday's episode of "Jersey Shore: Family Vacation," Sammi "Sweetheart" Giancola made her long-awaited return to the franchise after skipping out on the first five-and-a-half seasons of "Family Vacation."

The last time viewers saw her on-screen was the series finale of the original "Jersey Shore" in 2012, as she was the only original cast member to skip the revival.

Returning to the show also meant seeing her ex-boyfriend Ronnie Ortiz-Magro, who she dated on and off from the show's first season in 2009 until 2014, when the two called it quits for good.

Giancola exclusively spoke to E! News about their breakup in August 2014.

"Ronnie and I have gone our separate ways," she told the outlet at the time. "I wish him nothing but the best. Right now, I'm focused on myself."

Speaking to Us Weekly's Miranda Siwak on Thursday before the midseason premiere of "Family Vacation," Giancola said she found the idea of seeing Ortiz-Magro "nerve-wracking."

"I knew the moment I decided to come back that there will be a possibility that Ron will be here. You know, he's part of the family too. I definitely knew that," she told Us Weekly. "It was just like, 'OK, I can handle it — whatever comes my way.'"

Giancola also said that she doesn't really feel the need to be friends with Ortiz-Magro.

"I'm good, we can keep it moving," she said. "We're coworkers. You're just somebody I dated in my 20s."

"A lot of people are, like, when I tell them my age now, they're like, 'Wait, you dated him when you were 22 and you're 36 now?' Like, a lot of time has gone [and] I've dated other people," she added. "I mean, there's just a lot of life that goes on in between all those years."

Ortiz-Magro, for his part, is also returning to "Family Vacation" after exiting the show's main cast in May 2021.

At the time, he shared a statement on his Instagram story about his departure from the reality series. 

"After talking to the team at MTV, we have mutually agreed that I will step away from the show while I seek medical treatment for mental health issues that I've ignored for too long," he said in the statement, as Variety reported.

The news came after Ortiz-Magro faced allegations of domestic violence in April 2021. On April 22 of that year, the "Jersey Shore" star was arrested in Los Angeles on suspicion of intimate partner violence with injuries and with priors, as People reported. He was held at Van Nuys jail before being released that evening on $100,000 bail, TMZ — which was first to break the news — reported.

Ortiz-Magro's arrest came during the reality star's probation following a plea deal he accepted in 2020, related to a domestic-violence case involving his ex-girlfriend Jenn Harley.

Ortiz-Magro avoided charges from his April 2021 arrest. In a statement sent to People in May 2021, his lawyers said they were "very happy that after further investigation both the LA County District Attorney's office and the LA City Attorney's office determined that criminal charges were not warranted against Ronnie related to the incident that occurred in April."

In the August 3 episode, Giancola only spoke with castmate Angelina Pivarnick about how she'd fallen out with the rest of the cast, with the preview for next week's episode showing her surprise reunion with the rest of the cast (including Ortiz-Magro) which was teased on the "Jersey Shore" Instagram account back in March 2023.