Jameson started acting in erotic videos in after having worked as a stripper and glamour model. By , she had won the "Top Newcomer" award from each of the three major adult movie organizations. Jameson founded the adult-entertainment company ClubJenna in with Jay Grdina , whom she later married and divorced. Initially, a single website, this business expanded into managing similar websites of other stars and began producing sexually explicit videos in Jameson has also crossed over into mainstream pop culture, starting with a minor role in Howard Stern 's film Private Parts.
Jameson announced her retirement from pornography at the AVN Awards , stating that she would never return to the industry. She and her older brother Tony were raised Catholic , [ 17 ] [ 18 ] though they were essentially left to parent each other.
Jameson was a frequent entrant in beauty pageants as a child and enrolled in ballet classes throughout her childhood. Jameson wrote in her autobiography that in October , when she was 16 years old and while the family was living on a cattle ranch in Fromberg, Montana , she was beaten with rocks and gang raped by four boys after a football game at Fromberg High School.
The incident began after she attempted to hitchhike home and she entered the car of the four boys while believing that she would be driven to her home. She reported being raped a second time while still 16 by "Preacher", her boyfriend Jack's biker uncle. Jack was a tattoo artist and gave her the first of a series of tattoos, one of which would become her trademark tattoo, two hearts on her right buttock.
Jameson tried to follow in her mother's career as a Las Vegas showgirl, but most shows rejected her for not having the then-typical height of 5 feet 8 inches cm. Her boyfriend Jack encouraged her to apply for jobs as a dancer, [ 6 ] and in , though underage, she began dancing in Las Vegas strip clubs using a fake identification.
