Here's Why People Think Ronnie From 'Jersey Shore' Died (He Didn't, Just FYI)

Ronnie Ortiz-Magro of Jersey Shore fame is under fire after posting a clickbait-y photo and caption to his Instagram feed. The photo in question shows a photo of himself crying with the caption, "#RIP #LinkInBio." The comments, of course, were turned off. This immediately prompted a response from fans who thought perhaps Ronnie died. That is very much not the case — let us explain.

Jersey Shore star Ronnie didn't die. He posted a photo of himself crying with a vague and alarming caption so that fans would click the link on his bio, which was an article about his costar Angelina Pivarnick's reported divorce. Now, if you click on the link in bio, it takes you to a spammy article published May 2020 with the headline, "Celebrities We've Lost in 2020." It only shows one image, and it's of Carrie Fisher and her mother Debbie Reynolds (who actually died in 2016).

What's likely, is that Ronnie is being paid either by that website or a third party business to drive traffic (a.k.a., a business transaction). Since Ronnie isn't on Jersey Shore anymore, he needs another source of income, so this explains the clickbait posts. It's unclear how much he's actually being paid per share.

While the clickbait articles may seem harmless and all, folks on Reddit are actually pretty aggravated. Three days ago, when Ronnie (or whoever runs his account) had shared an Instagram Story that stated "Angelina releases official DIVORCE statement" with a swipe-up, people took to the platform to express how gross it was that he was using gossip as a way to make a little extra cash. "Clickbait he gets paid if we read it plus he’s clearly super pissed at all of them," someone on Reddit wrote.

Other cast members from Jersey Shore have participated in this clickbait game too, Redditors have pointed out. "This is really weird. I know awhile ago all of the cast members were posting a lot of swipe-ups and clickbait-y stuff about the show in their stories and I assumed it was because MTV wanted them to promo this way. But it’s been awhile since they’ve done that and Ron isn’t even involved in the show currently so.. ???!!! Not sure what he’s trying to accomplish here," one wrote.

And then there's the whole issue with Ronnie getting arrested on April 22, 2021 for domestic violence allegations. According to E! Online, he was taken into custody in Los Angeles and then later released on a $100,000 bail. Ronnie, at the time, was still on probation from the other domestic violence charge that came from his ex, Jenn Harley (this happened in 2019). It seems that this time, Ronnie's girlfriend Saffire Matos is the reported victim, and was the one who called the police on him.

The Jersey Shore cast members aren't the only ones guilty of posting clickbait content. In an Instagram post that has since been deleted, Teen Mom star Maci Bookout posted a photo of a sonogram and baby clothes with the caption "#LinkInBio" with the comments turned off. The link in bio led to an article about 16 and Pregnant star  Izabella Tovar being pregnant, not Maci. It was a very "haha, gotcha!" moment and fans felt deceived.

So, if you see a vague post and photo from a celeb on Instagram with the caption "#LinkInBio," chance are...it's just clickbait. Don't fall for it.