Jenna Jameson (born Jenna Marie Massoli) is an American entrepreneur and one of the world’s most popular adult film stars. Termed as ‘Queen of porn’ and ‘Heartbreaker’, she managed to maintain and succeed in her career despite some initial hardships.
Jenna Jameson was born on 9th April 1974 in Las Vegas, Nevada to Lawrence Massoli and Judith Hunt. Jenna had a tough childhood with her mother passing away due to melanoma. The family suffered a lot financially as most of their savings were spent on her mother’s treatments. The burgeoning star was also a victim of gang rape at the age of 16. The same year she was raped by her boyfriend’s uncle.
Jenna seemed to be attracted to the limelight from an early age. She trained to be a dancer and was frequently a part of beauty pageants. At first she tried a career as showgirl but that did not work out well for her, the dispute being the salary and sometimes the work schedules. Her boyfriend at the time encouraged her to try out her luck as a dancer. To pursue that she started dancing at various strip clubs in Las Vegas, but under a different identity. Jenna was determined to make a career out of strip dancing. When one of the clubs rejected her because of her braces, she took them out with the help of pliers just to get accepted. Soon Jenna’s earnings soared to two thousand dollars per night.
In the early 90’s Jenna started to pose nude for some magazines. Jenna was talk of the town by the time she reached her twentieth birthday. ‘Hustler’, ‘Penthouse’, ‘Cheri’ and ‘High Society’ had her pictures published in them making her one of the most sought after starlet. During this time Jenna decided to change her surname to ‘Jameson’; a name she thought matched perfectly with her line of work. ‘Jameson’ was the brand of her favorite whiskey. In 1993 she signed a contract with Wicked Pictures for her first adult film. It did not take long for her to catapult to the top. With hit after hit in the erotic film industry she was finally offered a 15-picture contract from Vivid Entertainment in 2003. Jenna was awarded with every award and recognition there was for the adult films. These included ‘Starlet of the Year’ from the X-rated Critics Organization (1995), Hot D’Or Best ‘New American Starlet’ (1996) and ‘Best New Starlet’ from AVN (1996). She was also inducted in the X-Rated Critics Organization Hall of Fame in 2005 and Adult Video News Hall of Fame in 2006.
Jenna also appeared in a mainstream film ‘Private Parts’ (1997). She started getting more offers for mainstream cinema that included a voice talent for the TV show ‘Family Guy’ in 2001 and some video games namely Tony Hawk’s ‘Pro Skater 4’ in 2002. Jenna established ClubJenna, Inc that was bought by Playboy Enterprises in 2006.
Jenna married her first husband, the director of Wicked Pictures, Rodney Hopkins in 1996. Her second marriage was to adult film star John G. Grdina which couldn’t survive the stress of Jenna’s cancer and fertility problems. Currently Jenna is in a steady relationship with the former UFC champion Tito Ortiz who is also the father of her twin sons.
