During a recent interview with Megyn Kelly on her podcast, Jersey Shore star Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino opened up about his drug addiction battle and the help he got from former Tonight Show host Jay Leno.
The reality TV star told Kelly he would frequently appear at shows and tapings while on drugs. "For instance, your show, if we were doing it in person, you'd see me at your show backstage, and I got the glasses on ... my pupils, are pinpointed," The Situation told the ex-Fox News host. "You can tell from a mile away when somebody is that high, and I was always high."
"I went on Jay Leno’s show a lot … I remember always Jay pulling me aside, and I could see the concern that he knew I was just going down this path, and that path only lead to destruction," he continued. "Everybody knows... if I bumped into somebody like myself today, I would pull myself aside…There are certain things that you know, people like Jay Leno ... Whoopi Goldberg always used to pull me aside on The View."
The Situation compared his struggles with drug addiction to that of Marvel superstar Robert Downey Jr.
The Academy Award-nominated actor struggled with substance abuse for years before getting clean and revitalizing his career as the titular superhero in Iron Man.
"I saw him on the Today Show, and you're always rubbing out elbows with these A-listers," Sorrentino told Kelly, "and he saw me, and he just knew I wasn't doing the right thing."
AsOK! previously reported, The Situation had "hundreds of pills" on him at all times during the height of his addiction.
While promoting his book, the MTV star admitted to turning to drugs when he was deeply "depressed" and riddled with "anxiety and self-doubt."
"I had given up on myself. I just wanted to get out of that space mentally," he told outlets. "It was like gasoline on fire."
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"I was a young and wild, careless kid, and once you gave kids millions of dollars and Ferraris and Lambos and girls screaming my name and yes-men everywhere, it was hard to turn that off," he explained. "That was my problem for many years — how do you turn off the excess?"
