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JWoww Reveals ‘Huge Argument’ With Roger Mathews Over Son Grayson’s Autism Diagnosis on ‘Family Vacation’ Premiere
On the season 3 premiere of Jersey Shore: Family Vacation, Jenni ‘JWoww’ Farley got real about struggling with her son’s autism diagnosis and how it affected her marriage.
In a car ride with castmate and friend Deena Cortese the reality star, 33, opened up about the struggles of parenting a child with special needs.
“I took the initiative for getting [Greyson] help,” said JWoww. “That was a huge argument between Roger and I. [He said], ‘He’s fine, he’s fine.’ [Roger] had a nervous breakdown in the pediatrician’s [office]. My heart broke for him because he was like, ‘I just want my son to walk down an aisle and have a family of his own.’”
Jenni divulged that the two had very different parenting styles. She wanted to deal with the evident diagnosis head-on, while Roger, 44, thought his son’s slow development was nothing to be concerned with.
“Roger believed that Greyson was a slow learner and he was going to learn on his own,” said Jenni to Deena, 32. “That caused a lot of tension on our household because we have one parent like, ‘I need to get ahead of this and fix it,’ which is me, and then you got another parent like, ‘What are you doing? It’s not a big deal.’”
Jenni continued to tell Deena that she knew something was seriously wrong after her son had an explosive temper tantrum like no other. “I have never experienced anything like that in my life. Greyson scratched his face, smashed my glasses, was headbutting me in front of everybody, hitting me, slapping me, biting. I see people recording and I’m like, ‘Oh, my God, f–king help me. My son has no idea what he’s doing right now. He’s completely manic, like, freaking.’ I just started crying, defeated, done. I started bawling.”
Like many mothers of children with disabilities, Jenni is extremely concerned about Greyson’s future and if he will be able to prosper like the average person. “I’m gonna hold his hand until I can’t and when I can’t hold his hand, my money is gonna hold his hand,” she said. “I’m preparing not for my retirement, but my kids’ retirement. … This bitch is tired.”
Since the filming of the episode, Jenni told Us Weekly that her 3-year-old son is, “doing amazing.” The reality star continued to say, “He’s in four or five different therapies, but he is just kicking ass. Every day gets better. Every day he’s learning something new. … It went from, he didn’t know one word or understand a word in September to now, it’s March and he’s combining two, three-word sentences. [He does] sign language. He knows his colors, his numbers.”
The reality star filed for divorce from Roger back in September. The two also share a 4-year-old daughter, Meilani.
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