Snooki Says Her Relationship With Her Birth Mother Is “Still a Journey” After Their Reunion (EXCLUSIVE)
"I really wanted to reach out to give my birth mom a peace of mind," the MTV star told us.
Updated Oct. 6 2025, 7:28 p.m. ET
It has been a long-running understanding among Jersey Shore fans that, despite the majority of the cast laying claim to a deep Italian heritage, Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi is a bit of an impostor. Well, not really, but she was merely adopted by an Italian-American family, and her biological parents are from Chile.
And after sharing that with her co-stars and viewers, what many want to know is whether or not Snooki ever found her biological parents outside of the show.
Snooki is extremely close to her adoptive parents, and they are the only parents she has ever known. But after Angelina Pivarnick reconnected with her birth father and other co-stars shared their own histories with long lost and unknown relatives, Snooki was inspired to seek out her biological family members, which fans saw on a Season 8 episode.
In an exclusive interview with Distractify, Snooki shared an update on where her and her birth mom's relationship stands since they've found each other.
Snooki is figuring out how open she is to getting to know her birth mother.
When Angelina reconnected with her dad, it was likely a lot easier because he was local. In Snooki's case, she knew her biological parents might still live in Chile, which makes things difficult for her in finding and contacting them.
She did, however, suggest that they might have already seen her thanks to the show.
During Season 8, Ep. 2 of Jersey Shore: Family Vacation, Snooki connected with her biological mother. The emotional conversation occurred over the phone with the help of a translator. Through the translator, Snooki asked her birth mom why she gave her up for adoption. Her birth mom replied in Spanish that she had to give her up after her partner, Snooki's father, disappeared after discovering she was pregnant.
Snooki shared in the episode that she wasn't mad at her biological mother and explained she wouldn't have the life she has today, from her adopted parents to her Jersey Shore fame to her cozy family life with her husband, Jionni Lavelle, and their three children.
Since the emotional sit-down, Snooki told us she's happy she reached out to her birth mother, admitting she needed to assure her that she made the right decision in putting her up for adoption.
"I really wanted to reach out to give my birth mom a peace of mind, because I knew she was probably getting up there in age, and I don't know her health or what's going on, or even if she was alive, I had no idea," Snooki explained.
"So the fact that I got to reach out to her and talk to her on the phone to let her know, like, 'Hey, I have a great life. I have great parents, like, I have kids, I have a great job, I feel like I just gave her peace of mind, because she literally had no idea what happened to me, where I ended up, if I was still alive... So I'm glad that I gave her that peace, and it's still a journey."
Snooki with her dad, Andy Polizzi
Snooki added that part of her and her birth mother's lack of communication stems from the fact that they need a translator to mediate their conversations due to the MTV star not being able to speak Spanish, which is something she's working on. She also said she's open to meeting her birth mother in Chile, but she just doesn't know when.
"The next thing would be, like, a FaceTime so she could see what I look like," Snooki said. "But like, I don't even know if I'm ready for that, or even like to go to Chile to meet her. That's just, it's, it's a lot. So I'm, I'm going slowly with it."
When was Snooki adopted?
Snooki revealed on the show and through YouTube videos that she was adopted when she was six months old. In fact, her adoptive parents picked her up from the airport when they arrived in Chile. And, according to Snooki, her biological parents had already had too many kids, and knew they couldn't properly care for Snooki too.
"My mom said they had a lot of kids and they wanted to give me a better life," Snooki explained in a 2024 episode of Jersey Shore: Family Vacation. "I'm so grateful. Can you imagine? I never really talk about me being adopted just because I'm so secure with how I ended up with my adoptive parents."
So far, Snooki hasn't had much luck in locating her biological parents or family members linked to them. But she also never knew any differently from the adoptive parents she grew up with, and she remains extremely close to them.