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Ronnie Ortiz-Magro Opened Up About His Sobriety Before Arrest: ‘I Was in a Really Dark Place’ (Exclusive)

Jen Harley and Ronnie Ortiz-Magro at Verge CBD Launch Opened Up About His Sobriety Hours Before His Arrest
Jen Harley and Ronnie Ortiz-Magro celebrate the launch of Verge CBD in Los Angeles on October 3, 2019. Jen Lowery/MEGA

Ronnie Ortiz-Magro was in good spirits at his CBD launch party of VERGE in West Hollywood on Thursday, October 3 — just hours before he was arrested following a physical altercation with his on-again, off-again girlfriend, Jen Harley. According to TMZ, Ortiz-Magro, 33, and Harley, 31, were staying at an Airbnb when he allegedly struck her and chased her with a knife. He was later book for kidnapping and posted $100,000 bail to be released from jail. Fox 11 LA originally reported the news.

Related: Jersey Shore’s Ronnie Ortiz-Magro and Jen Harley’s Dramatic Relationship: A Timeline

In an exclusive interview earlier that day, the Jersey Shore star told Us Weekly that CBD has helped him stay away from pills and alcohol.

After a friend got him samples to help with pain post-surgery, Ortiz-Magro was surprised at how much they helped. “I’d be in pain and I’m, like, I feel good! I don’t feel a nasty feeling after, I don’t feel like I need more. I feel like it lasts,” he said.

“You know, and it’s not like when you take pills, I feel like you’re, like, I gotta take four now and then I gotta take another four. And no. It’s, like, one drop, boom. With the pills, it’s like, 200 milligrams, that’s all you get. With CBD, you could control your own, what you want to do,” the MTV star continued.

Related: Ronnie Ortiz-Magro Gushed Over Jen Harley Before Domestic Violence Arrest: ‘Everyone Thinks We’re Toxic’

Ortiz-Magro said the stress of filming Jersey Shore: Family Vacation didn’t help his struggles with alcoholism and addiction.

“Everything that I didn’t know what to do, that was my coping mechanism, but it never solved anything,” he said. Being away from Harley and 18-month old daughter, Ariana, put him “in a really dark place.”

Ronnie Ortiz-Magro Opened Up About His Sobriety Hours Before His Arrest
Ronnie Ortiz-Magro. Dan Callister/MEGA

“People don’t realize we’re off air for five years, the show comes back, just takes off. I’m having a kid. I don’t see her, I’m traveling, it’s a bunch of different emotions that I’ve never felt before,” he explained. “So any person that ever doesn’t know what to do, what did they do? They drink.”

Ortiz-Magro said the more time he spent away, the more he continued to struggle. “Right? You’re stressed out, ‘I’m gonna go have a drink.’ So that’s what I did,” he said.

Related: Get to Know the Next Generation of ‘Jersey Shore’ Kids

In February 2019, the TV personality revealed exclusively to Us that he was a month sober. “I decided to go to treatment because I wanted to be a better person, a better father for my daughter,” he said, confirming he finished a monthlong rehab stint at Headwaters treatment center in West Palm Beach, Florida, at the time.

“I think it’s a chronic disease. It’s a progressive disease. I’m still struggling,” he continued. “You stop and you start up again, and it’s worse than when you stopped. You’re just like, ‘Wow, I thought I had this under control,’ but at the end of the day, it has full control over you.”

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