This Is Gonna Hurt (13 page)

I was kind of scared about how it was all going to turn out. I had told Kristin that I was in love with Jenna and that she makes me happy. Kristin was fine with that. To be honest, she was happy that I was finally with a woman who was not after my money.

And there had been quite a few of those. I didn't always have the best judgment when it came to women. I was out for having sex with a lot of different women and I didn't think too far beyond that.

Jenna was a little uncomfortable at first. She had never dated anybody who had a kid with somebody else. So yeah, it was hard for her. But over time they've gotten to know each other and it's become a more comfortable situation for both of them.

I'm not going to lie to you and say that being with Jenna has been one easy ride. We're great when we're alone together. It's how the rest of the world has reacted that has made for some interesting situations—one of which put me in direct conflict with the U. S. Marines.

I have been a supporter of our troops for a long time and became a favorite with the Marines. I was always going down to Camp Pendleton to talk to the guys, and I guess they looked up to me as this fighter and entertainer. One day I got an invite from a lieutenant in the Marine Corps Air Station in Miramar, California, to come to their annual Birthday Ball and to be one of their honorees. The guy on the phone said all I had to do was come down and speak in front of a couple of thousand people.

I said, “Awesome, I would love to do that.” He told me I could bring a guest and I let him know that I'd be bringing my girlfriend, Jenna. There was an uneasy pause at the other end of the line.

“You don't mean your girlfriend, Jenna Jameson?”

I said yes and he told me that I couldn't bring her. I asked why, and the lieutenant stammered and said that it was a decision by the marine higher-ups that I would not be allowed to bring her.

I said, “That's bullshit! She's not even in the business anymore!”

His response was that she still had something to do with that industry. I got real mad at that point. “She's living the American Dream,” I said, “and you don't give a shit about that? Who doesn't watch porn? Are you guys embarrassed that one of your guys may have seen her in a porno movie before?” We went back and forth on this for a while.

Finally, I told him I couldn't go to the event. I explained that I'm in love with this girl and I respect her one hundred percent. How could I tell her that I was not going to take her to the Marines' Ball because the Marines didn't want to accept her? I didn't go.

The Marines realized they screwed up and tried to save face after the fact. First they tried to turn the whole thing around, saying how could they allow an Ultimate Fighter to bring his porn star girlfriend to a Marine ball. That didn't go over so well. Then they apologized and said it wasn't up to them and that some higher-ups had made the decision. And then they actually invited Jenna to come down to various events for the troops.

But Jenna being treated that way was a hard thing to deal with. I still support the troops and I'm convinced that if we had gone, they would have accepted Jenna for who she is.

But I won't let anybody disrespect my woman. Not even the Marines.

Which leads me to a situation that happened in 2006 that involved Jenna and how I came close to having to hurt somebody—somebody whose name you will no doubt recognize.

Jenna and I and a couple of my friends were at Hugh Hefner's Playboy Mansion for this big party. There were a lot of famous people there. One of them, the rapper Too Short, had just finished performing and it was obvious that he was drunk.

After his show, he was walking around and he walked up to where Jenna and I and my friend Damian were standing. He starts rapping to her, saying stuff like, “Hey sweet thing. How you doing?” I got up in his face and said, “Yeah, dawg, that's my lady.” But then he kept right on rapping to her.

I thought,
I can't believe this motherfucker is doing this right now, disrespecting Jenna and me right in front of my face.
I was getting real pissed. I thought,
That's Too Short, but I don't give a fuck because that's my lady.
So I got in his face again and said, “Excuse me, but that's my girl.” He just said, “Hey, chill, man, chill,” and he started rapping to her again. Now I was getting really angry.

I turned to my friend Damian and said, “You'd better stop this fucking shit or I'm going to stomp a fucking hole in his face!” Jenna heard all this going down and kept saying, “Stop! Stop! Stop!”

But it was too late.

Damian, who is a pretty big guy, went over to Too Short and told him, “You'd better walk away right now or you're going to get a hole stomped in your face.” Too Short said “What?” Damian turned to me and said, “Tito, I'll slap his ass for you.” I didn't want to get kicked out of the Playboy Mansion and not be able to come back, so I cooled down.

But I think Too Short got the message because he turned around and walked away. But my thing with Too Short wasn't over.

Two weeks later I was in Vegas, taking part in a UFC event. I was taking a picture with a fan and Too Short walked right by me and said, “Hey, Tito, what's up?” I told him to hold up a minute and asked if he remembered seeing me at the Playboy Mansion the other night. He said, “Not really, but I was kind of fucked up.” So I told him, “I like you. You're an awesome artist, but you were being disrespectful to my girl. You were hitting on her right in front of me. I think you need to apologize to her right now.” He said, “Man, I'm sorry. I apologize. I was drunk.” I walked him over to where Jenna was standing and he apologized to her.

After he left, Jenna looked at me and smiled. She said, “Nobody has ever done that for me.”

And then there was my little run-in with the band Maroon 5.

I was in New York doing some press and Jenna told me that while I was out she had received an e-mail from the singer from the group Maroon 5, saying that he wanted to get her number and that she should give him a call. Jenna said, “You don't have anything to worry about. I just wanted you to know.”

I said, “Cool. Give me the guy's number.”

I called the number and got his voice mail. I said, “What's up? This is Jenna Jameson's boyfriend, Tito Ortiz. If you want to talk to my girlfriend, you give me a call.” I left my number and hung up. Jenna just looked at me, amazed. She said, “Are you serious? You just called him?”

I told her nobody is punking me. It just isn't happening.

The next day Jenna got a call from the band's manager, who bent over backward trying to smooth over the situation. He said that was not the intention of the call and that the band wanted her to appear in one of their videos. We both knew what he was saying was crap.

But Jenna realized at that moment that I loved her that much and that I would fight for her.

It was inevitable that I would eventually run into Jenna's ex-husband. That came about when Jenna and I went to the Adult Video News Convention in Las Vegas. Everybody knew that Jenna's ex was going to be there and the press immediately started predicting that he and I would get into it and that there would be this big violent brawl.

When we got there, I found out that Jenna's ex had actually hired security because he wanted to look like a bad dude when he walked into the convention hall. But that was his own doing. I don't think he was doing that because of me. There was no way I was going to beat him down.

We did meet up later that night at a nightclub and we shook hands. We had no hostility toward each other. I sensed that he respected me and the kind of person I am, but the thing at the AVN convention was merely a matter of two guys sizing each other up. No lines were crossed, so there was no reason for me to get into it with him.

Being around Jenna and being in a long-term relationship with Kristin has caused me to think about my relationships with women over the years. I could never be without a woman in the past because I was always in dire need of someone to take care of me. But in past relationships I've always had this need to see if the grass was greener on the other side; even when I've been with women who didn't mean more to me than sex.

I've been lucky with two women. Kristin was never with me for my money. She loved me and took care of me. She was not in love with Tito Ortiz the fighter. She was in love with Jacob, who was a good kid and who was going to grow up and be a high school teacher. Jenna is the same way. She could care less about how much money I have and because of her I've stopped looking elsewhere.

Like a lot of stuff, my dealings with women stem from the abandonment issues I have because of the way my parents treated me when I was growing up. It took me years to come to grips with that stuff, and Jenna's been real helpful with that.

For the past ten years I've had this recurring dream about waking up in a house and not knowing where I am. I would go to an old house that I used to live in and somebody else would be living there. One day I was talking to Jenna about the dream and she just came out and said, “You have abandonment issues.” The problem isn't completely solved, but knowing why I behave the way I do has been half the battle for me.

Jenna spends a lot of time at my house but she has her own place as well. You won't see any paparazzi hanging around my place. I have no problem with them because they're intimidated by me. Because they don't know me and can only judge me by my image, they think I'm a loose cannon.

There are always a few paparazzi hanging out at Jenna's house. But when I show up they leave. When we go out, it's even crazier. They'll come up and snap a few shots, which is okay with me. But if they get too close, I'll give them a look and they'll just step back. Some of them are okay, but a lot of them are just a little too pushy.