After a five-year hiatus from fist-pumping for a television audience, Vinny Guadagnino and the crew have returned to MTV for Jersey Shore: Family Vacation. The group has done some growing up — some are married, some have kids, and some, including Vinny, were in committed relationships while the show was filming. But who is Vinny from Jersey Shore: Family Vacation dating in 2018?
Fans met his most recent girlfriend, Instagram model Elicea Shyann, per Elite Daily, during the show's season premiere. She seemed to fit in perfectly with his bold and boisterous family, and they seemed to love her too, as they joked and talked with her over dinner on the show.
The two have shared some adorable, snuggly selfies on Instagram, which means their relationship was definitely official. And even after Vinny attempted to dance closely with Snooki at a club on the show, he claimed it was only a joke and that he had a girlfriend.
Back in December, Vinny shared what appears to be a dinner date snapshot of the couple, captioned, "My baby. And in January, he shared another photo of them captioned solely with flame emojis.
Although those photos still exist on Vinny's Instagram page, Vinny confirmed in an interview with Entertainment Tonight from early April that he is currently single. Shyann has switched her Instagram account to private mode, and has reportedly deleted any photos of the two of them from her profile, according to Heavy. The model doesn't seem to share much of her personal life online regardless, as she only had 44 posts on her profile when it was last public, as reported by Elite Daily.
Vinny resisted the "smush room" on the show in an effort to be faithful in his relationship, he told ET, and claims that he didn't stray from his commitment throughout the entirety of filming. "I didn’t do anything but like being in a position and then you know talking on the phone and, you know, explaining like I was in a club until six in the morning every night… that gets a little sticky,” he told the outlet. “I know that I did the right thing and that’s all that matters.” In the interview, which was published on April 5, Vinny referred to his breakup with Shyann as "recent."
Although he may have remained faithful at the time, he also admitted that filming Family Vacation may have played a part in his relationship's ultimate demise. "But there was problems beforehand," he told ET. "[The show] is the type of thing that could really be the straw that breaks the camel’s back."
He also revealed that he still cares about Shyann — their relationship was just undergoing too much strain. On top of the lack of communication that resulted from filming, they were already navigating a long distance, coast-to-coast relationship. He lives in New York, and she lives in California. "So a lot of things just made us feel like listen this can’t happen right now, maybe down the line," he said.
After experiencing such turbulence while trying to make his relationship work, Vinny has decided that he's not looking to be with anyone right now, according to his ET interview. But he hopes that the cards for a potential future with Shyann fall into place. "I do have someone that I really care about, she's the girl that I was with, but currently it didn't work out. So, I'm single," Vinny told Life & Style.
The only other recent pictures with women on his Instagram feed are of his cast mates, and he posted one shot with musician Grace VanderWaal after appearing on MTV's TRL. So though Vinny may be back in the dating pool, it doesn't seem as though he's gotten serious with anyone else just yet.
So it appears that Vinny is unattached for now, but who knows? Maybe the former couple will overcome the distance issues and make it work. Or maybe he'll be staying faithful to a new partner come Jersey Shore: Family Vacation Season 2.
