She’s getting so big! DJ Pauly D (real name: Paul D. DelVecchio Jr.) first revealed he had a daughter back in October 2013 — and since then, fans have gotten to see her grow up. The Jersey Shore star officially introduced his followers to daughter Amabella Sophia in January 2014, sharing a photo as they played pretend with a plastic tea set. Over the years, he’s continued to share updates about how she’s doing.
“I’m proud I’m a father,” Pauly first told TMZ when the news broke in 2013. “I am excited to embark on this new part of my life.”
The MTV star and his daughter’s mother, a woman named Amanda Markert, met in Las Vegas and hit it off. The couple shared a one-night stand before going their separate ways — and it was only later that Amanda discovered they would become parents. After she welcomed her daughter in May 2013, she broke the news to Pauly.
Though reality TV is a big part of her dad’s life, Amabella has yet to step into the spotlight. In the spring of 2019, however, her dad did open up about their relationship during an episode of Double Shot at Love. If he was hoping to find The One on the dating show he shared with BFF Vinny Guadagnino, he wanted to be open about the fact that there was already at least one girl who owned his heart. But that didn’t mean he was ready to introduce his daughter to the reality stars. Instead, he brought a child actor onto the show to rank his love interests and see how they handled it.
It sounds like the trick would be right up the real Amabella’s alley. “She is my mini-me. I look at her, and I see myself — the way she acts and everything,” he said on Live With Kelly and Ryan in April 2019. “She is a prank war champion, too. She pranks me, she hides my phone.”
She also follows in her dad’s footsteps in other ways. “She knows I’m a DJ, she knows I have these huge crowds and I am a big influence and she knows what an [influencer] is,” Pauly explained to Us Weekly in May 2019. “She calls me famous when I go to the airport. … People yell my name and she sees that. … I tell her that I use that for good, to bring awareness to [important] causes.”
That doesn’t mean Amabella will be making her own reality TV debut anytime soon. For now, the father is trying to shield her from the limelight. “She knows [about Jersey Shore], but she is not allowed to watch it,” he told Kelly Ripa and Ryan Seacrest. “It’s a little too risqué.”
What does Amabella look like these days? Check out the gallery below to watch her grow up.