She has since won more than 35 adult-video awards, and has been inducted into the X-Rated Critics Organization (XRCO) and Adult Video News (AVN) Halls of Fame.
Her 2004 autobiography, How to Make Love Like a Porn Star: A Cautionary Tale, spent six weeks on The New York Times Best Seller list.
Her mother, Judith Brooke Hunt, was a Las Vegas showgirl who danced in the Folies Bergère show at the Tropicana Resort & Casino.
[14][16] 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 (173 cm).
[22] Her boyfriend Jack encouraged her to apply for jobs as a dancer,[6] and in 1991, though underage, she began dancing in Las Vegas strip clubs using a fake identification.
[28] While in high school, she began taking drugs – cocaine, LSD, and methamphetamine – accompanied by her brother (who was addicted to heroin[14]) and at times her father.
[36] In 1994, after overcoming her drug addiction by spending several weeks with her father and grandmother, Jameson relocated to Los Angeles to live with Nikki Tyler.
[48] New York Magazine's Intelligencer quoted a source from Penthouse as saying "I'm sure she is considering it", adding that Jameson was to be cover girl in January 2004 – and "it's a really wild-looking shoot, even for a porn star.
[53][54] Y-Tell, ClubJenna's wireless company, sells Jenna Jameson "moan tones" (telephone ringtones), chat services, and games in partnerships with 20 carriers around the world, mostly in Europe and South America.
[5] In 2006, New York City-based Wicked Cow Entertainment started to expand her brand to barware, perfume, handbags, lingerie, and footwear, sold through high end retailers such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Colette boutiques.
[56] In August 2005, ClubJenna launched Club Thrust, an interactive website for Jameson's gay male fans, which includes videos, galleries, sex advice, gossip, and downloads.
[51] In August 2005, a group of business investors that included Jameson purchased Babes Cabaret, a strip club in Scottsdale, Arizona, intending to make it the first foray of ClubJenna into live entertainment.
[59] Soon after the purchase attracted attention, the Scottsdale City Council proposed a new ordinance banning nudity at adult-entertainment venues and requiring a four-foot divider restricting contact with dancers.
Playboy CEO Christie Hefner said that she expected to rapidly increase film production, producing about thirty features in the first year, and will expand the way they are sold, not only as DVDs but through TV channels, video-on-demand services, and mobile phones.
[5] The autobiography also won the 2004 "Mainstream's Adult Media Favorite" XRCO Award in a tie with Seymore Butts's Family Business TV series.
[70] The book covers her early career from her beginning in show business living with her tattoo artist boyfriend, through receiving the Pornographic Hot d'Or award at Cannes, and wedding pictures from her second marriage.
[28] The first-person narrative is broken up by personal photos, childhood diary entries, family interviews, movie scripts, and comic panels.
[72] The autobiography publisher, Judith Regan, also served as executive producer of a tie-in television news special, Jenna Jameson's Confessions,[73] airing on VH1 on August 16, 2004, one day before the book's launch.
[16] She became a regular guest on his show, appearing more than 30 times,[5] and played the role of "Mandy", the "First Nude Woman on Radio", in Stern's semi-autobiographical 1997 film Private Parts.
In 2002, Jameson and Ron Jeremy played themselves in Comedy Central's first feature television movie Porn 'n Chicken, in the roles of speakers for a pornography viewing club.
[88] She also provided both the appearance and the voice for "Daisy", a secret playable character for the video game Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4, who performs provocative tricks with her clothing and skateboard.
[11][47] In the months following the publication of her autobiography, she was interviewed on NBC, CNBC, Fox News, and CNN,[7] and the book was reviewed by The New York Times, Reuters, and other major media outlets.
[71][72] Jameson was featured prominently in Samhain, a low budget horror film in which she starred with other pornographic actresses including Ginger Lynn Allen.
[91] In February 2006, Comedy Central announced plans to feature Jameson as "P-Whip", in a starring role in its first animated mobile phone series, Samurai Love God.
[93] In April 2006, Jameson was the star of a video podcast ad for Adidas, advertising Adicolor shoes by playing a provocative game of whack a mole.
In 2008, Jameson had another starring role in the comedy horror film Zombie Strippers, loosely based on Eugène Ionesco's play Rhinoceros.
An interview with Jameson contained in the 1999 Abercrombie & Fitch A&F Quarterly was part of the motivation for Michigan Attorney General Jennifer Granholm and Illinois Lieutenant Governor Corinne Wood to speak out against the hybrid magazine-catalog.
[14] In October 2006, it was reported that Jameson began dating mixed martial artist and former UFC champion Tito Ortiz,[135] whom she met on Myspace.
She was sentenced to three years of informal probation, ordered to pay $340 in fines, and participate in a Mothers Against Drunk Driving victim impact panel.
Lawless posted a video on her Instagram explaining that "the 50-year-old former adult film star's alleged drinking led to her decision to end the marriage.