This Is Gonna Hurt (12 page)

A
s much as I craved the spotlight, by 2005 I was so recognizable that occasionally it was annoying. I couldn't go to dinner without someone bothering me. I couldn't go to the mall or do anything without someone coming up to me for an autograph or to take a picture. But hell, I really didn't have too much to complain about. I had been dying for this kind of attention my whole life, so I guess this is just the price you pay for celebrity. Every once in a while I wish I could put on a mask or be someone else for a day. But I'm a big guy, so it's kind of hard for me to hide.

And then I met Jenna Jameson in June 2006.

The first time I saw one of Jenna's movies was when I was working at Spanky's. My reaction to her at that time was like any guy watching porn—I was just thinking like a guy with his other head.

When I was nineteen years old, I was doing some work for a company out in Vegas that was setting up booths for a convention. It turned out one of the booths was for Jenna. I saw her from far away and didn't go up to her. But boy, I could tell she was hot.

The third time I met Jenna went like this. I had been up in Big Bear, training for the second Ken Shamrock fight, when I decided to take a day off and come down to Los Angeles to watch a hockey game. My friend Chris Nagy and I were in one of the suites, watching the game, and there were several girls in there with us. We started talking to them and I mentioned that I had to go to Vegas to do some public relations for the upcoming Shamrock fight. The girls said they would be in Vegas, too, and that their friend Jenna was going as well.

“You know,” said the girl. “Jenna Jameson?”

I knew exactly who Jenna Jameson was.

One girl said, “Yeah, maybe you can come out and party with us. Jenna and her husband aren't getting along and they may be divorcing soon.”

This was getting interesting.

After meeting the girls, I went back up to Big Bear and a couple of days later I was checking the friend requests on my MySpace page when I saw one from Jenna Jameson. I thought it was a joke. So I e-mailed her back and said, “This isn't Jenna Jameson, you're lying. E-mail me back if it's really you.”

I went out to train and when I came back there was an e-mail saying, “Yes, this is Jenna. I've been watching your fights for a long time. I'm going to be in Vegas to watch your match and I'd like to come to your after party.” I called and told her my after party was going to be at the club Tryst and that she should come by.

The next week I went up to Vegas for the pre-fight promotion and I saw her there with her husband. She came over and introduced herself. Man, she was hot! I was acting rather shy because that's how I usually am when I meet a woman for the first time. She turned to her husband and said, “He's hot!” To which he said, “Yeah, he's your fucking type!” That's when they were fighting. We made some conversation and then I went off to prepare for the fight with Shamrock, which was held at the Mandalay Bay.

After the fight I went to the Tryst club. I looked around and there she was. I had started drinking early and was already pretty drunk. Her security guard came over to me and told me she wanted to talk to me. I was a little nervous so I asked a couple of friends to come over with me.

I sat down next to her. I was pretty fucked up, but I tried to play it cool. She told me that she saw my fight and wanted to come out and talk to me. We made some small talk for a while.

Then she said, “What are you doing tomorrow? I'll be going to the Hard Rock.” I said, “Cool! I'm actually staying there. So I guess I'll see you there.”

We exchanged cell phone numbers and I actually saw her again the next night. That was an interesting encounter.

I was still seeing Heather when I was in town, and she was with me that night. But we were not dating anymore. I spotted Jenna across the room and pointed her out to Heather, who looked pissed. She said, “So who gives a fuck! Fuck her!”

Heather was jealous. That was good. She was never a real serious thing to me. She was even less so now. When I was in Vegas we would just get together and have sex. I didn't want a girlfriend. But I started seeing Jenna.

One night I was with Jenna and Heather walked up behind her and stuck her finger in her butt. Jenna says, “What the fuck!” and yells at her security to get “that fucking chick” out of here.

The security guy seemed kind of flustered. He told Jenna that the girl was actually my girlfriend, but I made it clear to her that although she was with me, she wasn't my chick.

The next day I told Heather that I was going to go out on a date with Jenna. Heather said, “Well, in that case, I'm never going to talk to you again.”

My response to that was, “Oh well. I don't give a fuck.”

A week went by. I'd had my son with me for four days and he was getting ready to go home with Kristin. Things between us had gotten much better once we were separated. We were actually starting to be more like the friends we were when we first met.

After Jacob went home, I gave Jenna a call and asked her if she wanted to go to the county fair with me.

“You're asking me to the fair?” she asked.

I said, “Yeah, it's cool.”

“That's so cute,” she replied. “But I can't go. I've got things to do.”

She told me that she and some of her friends were going out in LA on Friday and that I was welcome to come along. At that point I was still a little shy around Jenna so I called my friend Rick and invited him to come with me.

We met Jenna and her friends at the hotel Mondrian in Hollywood. I was sitting on a couch with her all evening and I kept moving closer and closer, until finally I put my arm around her.

We were having a great conversation. I couldn't believe how smart she was. That was easily the best conversation I had ever had with a woman in my life. We started walking out at the end of the evening and she was kind of walking by herself, so I grabbed her arm and pulled her close to me.

We were pretty much together after that.

We didn't have sex for about a month. But it was worth the wait. As I was getting to know her, I found her to be a very respectable girl. Which was not the impression I had of women who worked in porn.

After working at Spanky's and being around that business, I had the impression that a porno chick is easy—you go and fuck her and it's no big thing. But I got a totally different vibe from Jenna. I respect her a whole lot.

I did have second thoughts about getting involved with Jenna. I obviously knew all about her background, so I had to ask myself what I was getting into. She explained to me that she had gotten out of the business a while ago and that the only sexual activity she had in the past three years had been with her husband. I truly believe she is done with porn. She's a former porno star. If she were still in the business, I might not still be with her after more than a year.

And no, I never cheated on her with other women. There has been no fooling around since we got together. Zero cheating. It used to eat me up when I cheated on Kristin. It hurt so bad that I couldn't look myself in the mirror. With Jenna I don't have the urge to cheat. All of that has changed for me.

She's beautiful. She has an awesome body. She's smart. We care about each other. She's not with me for my money. The fact is she has more money than I do. We're kind of like a celebrity power couple and we empower each other.