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Although Jersey Shore star Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi is one of the viewers’ favorites “guidettes,” she’s not an Italian-American. MTV removed the ethnic slur from many of their promotions, but the cast members still use it, including Snooki. She believes she is still Italian, even though she is from Santiago, Chile. 

Nicole 'Snooki' Polizzi from 'Jersey Shore'
Nicole ‘Snooki’ Polizzi from ‘Jersey Shore’ | Efren Landaos/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

‘Jersey Shore’: Who are Snooki’s parents?

On July 5, 2018, Snooki opened up about her adoption, and what it was like to grow up with her adoptive family.

“I was adopted at six months from Santiago, Chile,” Snooki began her story via YouTube video. “I was adopted by Helen and Andrew Polizzi. They flew all the way to Chile to come to pick me up. They said right when they saw me I was like, ‘Mama, Dada,’ so it was like meant to be. I could tell because things just work out that way. It’s called fate. I was always meant to be with my adoptive parents.”

They lived together in upstate New York after she was adopted, and Polizzi grew up as an Italian-American.

“Even though my nationality is Chilean. I grew up Italian,” Snooki explains. “When people say to me, ‘What’s your nationality?’ I say, ‘I’m Chilean, but I grew up Italian, so I feel like I’m both.'”

Would ‘Jersey Shore’ Star Snooki ‘still be a hot mess’ if she was never adopted?

Polizzi speaks very highly of her adoptive parents. She hates even to call them “adoptive” because she feels they are her parents. There’s no need for the qualifier in her mind.

“I am blessed at the fact that I have my adopted parents,” Snooki continues in the video. “They gave me an amazing life, and they deal with my shit, which is crazy. I always wonder if I never was adopted and I stayed with my birth parents, would I still be a hot mess like this? Just in Spanish?” 

Snooki contemplates the thought often but always comes to the same conclusion.

“Probably,” she decides. “I feel like I was always meant to be this hot mess. I’m definitely thankful for my life.”

Does Snooki ever want to meet her birth parents?

Polizzi was interested in why her birth parents gave her up for adoption, so she finally got her dad drunk one day and asked him. Her father explained that her birth parents had other children and couldn’t afford another baby.

“I always wanted a brother or sister,” Polizzi explains. “What do they look like? Do they act like me? Would I ever want to meet them? I think I would. I definitely think I would want to meet my birth family.”

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However, she wonders how she would communicate with them. Snooki doesn’t speak Spanish, so she thinks they need an interpreter to talk to her birth family. 

At this point, Polizzi doesn’t feel like she has the time to track down her birth parents, but she wants to at some point down the road.