What is Jenna Jameson's net worth and salary?
Jenna Jameson is a retired adult film star and a businesswoman who has a net worth of $500 thousand. Jenna Jameson is arguably the most famous adult film actress of all time. She is also a very early internet entrepreneur, having co-founded the adult company ClubJenna.
Jenna Jameson is a prominent figure in the adult entertainment industry. She began her career as a glamour model and exotic dancer before transitioning to adult films in the early 1990s. Jameson quickly gained popularity and became one of the most well-known and successful adult film actresses of all time. Throughout her career, she appeared in numerous adult films and won several industry awards.
In addition to her work in adult entertainment, Jameson has also been involved in mainstream media. She has made appearances on popular television shows, such as "Howard Stern" and "Family Guy," and has had small roles in Hollywood films. Jameson has also authored a New York Times best-selling autobiography titled "How to Make Love Like a Porn Star: A Cautionary Tale."
She founded ClubJenna in 2000 with her husband at the time, Jay Grdina. The company started out providing diaries, advice on relationships, and tips on stocks, as well as pictures and videos. It eventually grew into a multimedia adult web empire that sold merchandise and adult films starring Jenna and other adult actors and actresses. At the company's peak before they sold, ClubJenna was generating $5 – $15 million per year in gross revenue. ClubJenna was acquired by Playboy in 2006 for $25 million.
Jenna Jameson / Photo by Scott Gries/Getty Images
Early Life
Jenna Jameson was born Jenna Marie Massoli on April 9, 1974, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Her mother (a Las Vegas Showgirl) passed away from melanoma while Jenna was still very young. Her family moved to Arizona and Montana. She lived part-time with her grandmother and was frequently in beauty pageants as a child. She also took ballet lessons throughout her childhood. Jameson started taking drugs in high school and developed an addiction over four years of hard drug use. She graduated from Bonanza High School and worked briefly at Disneyland Resort. Jameson got a job at the Crazy Horse Too strip club and was making $2000 a night within just six months. At the beginning of her dancing career, she was known as Jennasis. In 1991, she began posing nude for photographs with the intention of getting into Penthouse.
Film Career
Jameson appeared in her first erotic film in 1993, a non-explicit softcore movie by Andrew Blake. She quickly gained attention and began appearing in several adult films in the Las Vegas area. In 1994, she overcame her drug addiction by spending several weeks back home with her father and grandmother. She then relocated to Los Angeles and lived with fellow adult actress Nikki Tyler, whom she was also dating at the time. Jenna was signed to an exclusive contract with Wicked Pictures, a small adult film production company, in 1995. The contract earned her $6,000 for each of the eight movies in her first year. 1995's "Big Blue" was her first big-budget production, and both the film and Jameson won several awards from the three major industries. By 2001, Jenna was earning $60,000 per day and a half of filming while also earning $8,000 a night at her side job at the strip club. In 2008, Jenna retired from adult films.
(Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
ClubJenna
In 2000, Jenna and her boyfriend-at-the-time (soon-to-be husband), Jay Grdina, co-founded ClubJenna, an internet adult company. It was one of the first of its kind to provide not only pictures and videos but also blogs, relationship advice, and stock tips. Early ClubJenna films featured Jenna herself, but by 2004, she had stepped back from starring in the films and letting others feature in the starring roles. The website directly sold videos featuring Jameson and other women OR Jameson and Grdina. The business ultimately grew to employ 18 people producing content, merchandise, DVDs, and managing web traffic for dozens of popular adult domains. At its peak, the company reportedly generated $5 – $15 million per year in revenue. In June 2006, ClubJenna was acquired by Playboy Enterprises for an unconfirmed $25 million.
Jay's brother Jim Grdina would later sue Jay and Jenna, claiming he was an investor in ClubJenna and did not receive his share of the proceeds from the sale. He also sued them separately over a $250,000 loan made in 2003, which was meant to help the couple buy Penthouse Magazine. The brother claimed to have only been repaid half of the investment after the bid did not go through. The brother also claimed to have lent the couple $275,000 in 2006, which was not repaid. Interestingly, Jim Grdina is now married to former adult star Bibi Jones.
Jenna Jameson/ Ethan Miller/Getty Images
Other Ventures
Jameson was a regular on the "Howard Stern Show." She had a cameo in his biopic "Private Parts." She voice acted in "Family Guy" and was cast as the girlfriend of a political financier in a couple of episodes of "Mister Sterling" on NBC. Jenna has also used her voice acting skills in video games. The first being Candy Suxxx in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and as Daisy in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater Four. She was also in a music video with Eminem for the song "Without Me."
Jameson released her autobiography, "How to Make Love Like a Porn Star: A Cautionary Tale" in 2004. Co-written with New York Times contributor Neil Strauss, the salacious tell-all was an instant hit and spent six weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list. Jameson also wrote a fictional erotic novel, "Sugar," which was released in October 2013.
In 2005, she launched an interactive website called Club Thrust for gay men. It featured advice on sex, videos, lots of gossip, and more. She also became co-owner, with some business investors, of Babes Cabaret in 2005, which was a strip club in Arizona. There were many objections to the opening of Babes Cabaret, but after Jenna started a petition, she won the right to keep it running.
In 2006, the NYC-based Wicked Cow Entertainment expanded her brand to barware, handbags, footwear, perfume, and lingerie, sold through high-end retailers such as Saks Fith Avenue.
Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images
Personal Life
Jenna dated fellow adult actress Nikki Tyler for many years. Jameson discusses many famous boyfriends in her autobiography, including Tommy Lee and Marilyn Manson. She was married, for ten short weeks, to the adult star and director of Wicked Pictures, Rodney Hopkins (known as Brad Armstrong.) They divorced in March 2001 after Brad discovered Jenna had an affair with Jorge Araya Montoya, whom she had met on vacation in Costa Rica.
Her second husband was Jay Grdina. Jenna and Jay were married from 2003 to 2006. They met in 1998. Soon after marrying, Jay and Jenna moved into a $4.5 million home in Paradise Valley, Arizona. Grdina was also an adult film star, acting under the name Justin Sterling. From 1998 until Jenna's retirement, they were each other's only on-screen partners in their adult films. After a skin cancer diagnosis and subsequent surgery in 2004, she was unable to conceive with Grdina. The couple confirmed their split in 2006.
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The same year, before the divorce was finalized, Jameson started dating Tito Ortiz, a mixed martial artist and UFC Champion. Their relationship grew, and in 2009, Jenna gave birth to twins Jesse Jameson and Journey Jette. In 2010, Ortiz was accused of domestic violence and was arrested. Jenna suffered a broken arm, and Ortiz claims that Jenna was out of control and had developed an addiction to OxyContin. Even though both parties have dropped their accusations, the police are still investigating the incident. Jameson and Ortiz parted ways in March 2013, and he was granted full custody of the twins. In a 2019 interview, Tito revealed that Jenna blew through $8 million in three years while they were together. He also claimed that Jenna had lost visitation rights to their sons and today lives in Hawaii, totally out of contact.
Jameson announced in August of 2016 that she and her boyfriend, Lior Bitton, were expecting their first child together. Their daughter, Batel Lu, was born in April 2017.
In June 2023, Jenna married a woman named Jessi Lawless. In April 2024, Jessi filed to have the marriage annulled.
