Jersey Shore Star Nicole 'Snooki' Polizzi Reveals Stage 1 Cervical Cancer Diagnosis
Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi, best known from jersey shore, announced she has been diagnosed with Stage 1 cervical cancer and said she will undergo further testing and surgery to remove the affected tissue.
Jersey Shore star says diagnosis is Stage 1 adenocarcinoma
The 38-year-old said a cone biopsy returned results showing Stage 1 cervical cancer called adenocarcinoma. "It came back Stage 1 cervical cancer called adenocarcinoma, " she said in a TikTok after a doctor’s appointment, adding that the finding was not the news she had hoped for but that it was caught early. She noted she had been struggling with abnormal Pap smears for three or four years before the diagnosis.
Medical steps already taken and the next procedures
Polizzi said doctors removed what they identified as the tumor during the cone biopsy and that tissue around the removed area tested clear. She said there remains a chance the cancer could spread, so her next steps include a PET scan followed by a hysterectomy; her oncologist presented chemotherapy or radiation as other options. She also said she expects to keep her ovaries after the planned hysterectomy.
Family life and public profile amid the diagnosis
Polizzi shared that she first told followers about doctors finding cancerous cells on her cervix in a Jan. 20 TikTok after a colposcopy and biopsy showed abnormal results. She is a mother of three and is married to Jionni LaValle. The couple met in 2010 at a club during the making of jersey shore Season 3 and married in November 2014; their children include Lorenzo Dominic, Giovanna Marie (born in September 2014), and Angelo (born in 2019). Her husband has a background in wrestling and has appeared with her on a 2016 home renovation series that followed the pair repairing storm-damaged homes along the Jersey Shore after Hurricane Sandy. Divorce rumors resurfaced in 2025 when she attended a wedding without her husband present, which prompted public questions about their relationship.
Polizzi urged women to stay on top of routine screening, saying, "I’m 38 years old and I’ve been struggling with abnormal Pap smears for three or four years now, and now look at me. " She described the cancer as curable when caught early and said she felt fortunate it had not advanced further.
Her immediate confirmed plans are a PET scan to assess whether the cancer has spread and a hysterectomy based on those results. She has said the hysterectomy is the option she believes is the smart choice, and that timeline will depend on the scan and her medical team's guidance.
