There are many industry insiders who have made the claim that there will never be another porn star like Jenna Jameson, and many more consider her the last real celebrity of the adult entertainment industry. Dubbed as The Queen Of Porn, she bridged the gap between VHS & DVD retail stores to online streaming websites with the rise of the Internet age and pioneered an adult entrepreneurship that made her into a multimillionaire in under a decade, however recent celebrity appearances and public statements made online have left many wondering about the current state of the adult stars mental health.
Jameson entered into the adult industry in 1993 after illegally dancing underage for two years prior at the Crazy Horse Too in Las Vegas. It wasn’t long before the entire industry noticed her, winning the “Top Newcomer” award at the XRCO, Hot d’Or and AVN Award shows in 1996. Since then she has gone on to win 20 adult video awards and has even been inducted into the XRCO and AVN Halls of Fame.
In 2000 Jameson started up Club Jenna with Jay Grdina, a multimedia adult entertainment website which initially focused on journals of sex stars, erotic stories, dating advice and even stock tips for it’s paid members. In 2001 they began producing their own original content with their first film, Briana Loves Jenna, named as the best selling pornographic title of 2002 at the 2003 AVN awards. By 2005 Club Jenna had revenues of $30 Million US, with profits of about half that, and in 2006 Reuters named it as one of the handful of studios that dominated the adult entertainment industry before being acquired by Playboy TV later that year.
Grdina and Jameson would marry in June 2003, and file for divorce in December of 2006, just one of the string of dysfunctional relationships she would endure though out her career. Her ex-boyfriend Jack encouraged her to begin stripping in 1991, but he left her in 1994 due to her abusive lifestyle with drugs. In 1996 she married The King of Porn, Brad Armstrong, before divorcing in 2001. At separate points she was even romantically linked to Dave Navarro and Marilyn Manson, but after her and Grdina broke up in 2006 she began her most public relationship to date, with UFC Fighter Tito Ortiz.
The two began dating before Jameson filed for divorce from Grdina, in fact, Ortiz confessed his love for Jameson in November 2006 live on the Howard Stern show. In August 2008 they announced they were expecting twins and on March 16, 2009, Jameson gave birth to twin boys Jesse Jameson and Journey Jette.
Trouble for the pair started to surface when Ortiz was arrested for domestic violence after the police were called to their California home in April 2010. Jameson made allegations of abuse from Ortiz, while Ortiz claimed Jameson was addicted to OxyContin and had become erratic. Since then the pair has publicly made outlashs at each other via television and radio appearances, Twitter posts, print interviews and anywhere else where someone will listen to their claims.
Then a series of public downfalls happened for Jameson. In May, 2012 she was arrested for Driving Under the Influence after she crashed her car into a light pole and failing a sobriety test, blowing a 0.13 and having two prescription drugs in her system. She would plead guilty to the charge. In April 2013 it came out Ortiz was in full care of their twin boys after he was concerned for Jameson’s ability to care for them. A month later on May 30, 2013, after losing a custody battle, Jameson took to Twitter for a 6hr rant claiming Ortiz was a frequent substance abuser who had illegally faked drug tests for UFC. Ortiz responded with Tweets of his own, pictures of him and the kids having dinner. On October 16, 2013, upset at her inability to see her children, Jameson took to twitter for a second outburst, claiming Ortiz had cheated on her with a hooker in Australia and never paid her, so the hooker called up Jameson to get the money he owed.
Five days later, on October 21, 2013, Jameson had a 9:00am appearance on the television show Good Day New York where she seemed intoxicated by slurring words and trailing off on sentences. The shows hosts were visibly disturbed and the show’s producer cut the interview short. An hour later Jameson appeared on the After O&A Show on SiriusXM where she broke down crying when questions were posed about her children and Ortiz. She claimed she hadn’t seen her children in months, and when she does see them, it’s under supervised visits which she has to pay for.
But on October 28, 2013 Ortiz sat down with Larry King for an all out interview on Larry King Now where he spoke out on his former lover. Posed with questions about the relationship and his children, Ortiz spoke his clearly mind.
“Last Monday there was something was shown on TV, she was doing some type of interview and people got to see what I’ve lived with for five years. I tried to help somebody who didn’t want help.”
King mentioned Jameson’s appearance on his show the week before, saying she seemed great, spoke well and had nice things to say, but asked if she was ‘two different people’.
“You know, she’s the mother of my children at then end of the day, and I pray and I wish that she would get help for herself. I pray every day for it. I lived with it for a long time; I tried to help someone who didn’t want to be helped. You know, I came from a bad up bringing myself, at the age of 13 my mother left my father to give me a second chance at life. If my mother never did that, would I be sitting here right now?”
King then asked about Jameson’s visitation rights.
“She hasn’t tried to see (the kids) in the last four and a half months, and just recently, this is just before she did her book tour, all of a sudden she’s ranting and raving on the Internet about how she wants her kids. She has visitation rights, yes, but she has to pass a few tests to make it happen, and she doesn’t care to make it happen.”
After the series of bad interviews, Jameson canceled the remaining scheduled TV appearances for her book tour, leaving many people curious about her current mental state. Is she addicted pharmaceutical drugs? Why doesn’t she conduct the tests to see her children? Is she currently trying to kick her drug habit, hence the cancelation of her tour appearances? Will she clean up, pull herself together and climb back to the top again, or will she become another tragic story of fame, addiction, sex and money? We will have to wait and see.
We hope for all the best for Jenna, and hope she gets through these tough times, if not for herself, at least for her children.
Tags: Bad Relationships, Domestic Abuse, Drug Use, Jenna Jameson, OxyContin, Tito Ortiz, Twitter