Former Adult Film Star and Model Jenny Leone on the Playboy Mansion, Benzos, Adderall, Opiates, Posing for Penthouse to the Adult Film Awards in Vegas to her Four Pillars of Creating Wealth and HealthFormer Adult Film Star and Model Jenny Leone on the Playboy Mansion, Benzos, Adderall, Opiates, Posing for Penthouse to the Adult Film Awards in Vegas to her Four Pillars of Creating Wealth and Health
Chasing Heroine: Addiction Recovery Podcast
Former adult film star Jenny Leone shares how childhood abuse, a Playboy‑fuelled career and heavy pill use led to psychosis, trauma and eventual sobriety. She explains how asking for help, rebuilding from nothing and living by four simple pillars reshaped her life in recovery.
1:21:30•18 Jun 2026
From Playboy Covers to Four Pillars: Jenny Leone on Addiction, Abuse and Starting Again
Episode Overview
- Childhood sexual abuse and a dismissive family response contributed to Jenny’s early reliance on drugs and alcohol to numb emotions.
- A seemingly glamorous adult‑industry career masked escalating pill use, severe anxiety, and dangerous situations including rape by a powerful executive.
- Years of heavy benzodiazepine, opiate and Adderall use led to psychosis, overdose and a high‑speed police chase, even though she “didn’t look like a drug addict.”
- Sustained sobriety began only after she asked for help, went through a brutal detox and treatment, and humbly started over in low‑paid work and shared housing.
- Jenny’s ongoing recovery is rooted in her four pillars: shifting from victim to survivor, adopting a “why not me” mindset, practising forgiveness, and living a life of daily service.
“Asking for help was the strongest thing that I could do, which is what I try to tell people today.”
How do people find strength in their journey to sobriety? This episode of Chasing Heroine follows former adult film star and model Jenny Leone as she talks frankly about childhood trauma, the glamour and darkness of the Playboy era, and building a sober life she actually wants to live.
Jenny shares how a “very normal, middle-class family” in Vancouver hid sexual abuse from the age of three to twelve, parents who couldn’t face the truth, and a therapist who literally told her to “put it in a little box… and you never have to deal with that again.” From there, drugs and alcohol became her way to stop feeling.
You’ll hear how a modelling break at 19 led to magazine covers, a TV show, and eventually a decade as “Jesse Capelli”, appearing on up to 17 adult magazine covers at once and touring with Jenna Jameson. Behind the apparent success were sky‑high scripts for benzos, opiates and Adderall, psychosis, a high‑speed police chase, and, most shattering, being raped by a Playboy executive at the AVN awards.
“I was so disgusted by all of it,” she says, describing that event as the push that finally got her out of the industry. Sober since 2016, Jenny describes detoxing off a handle of vodka a day while unexpectedly pregnant, rebuilding from a shared room and a £16‑an‑hour job, and working every level of treatment from tech to owner.
She lays out her “four pillars” for wealth and health: move from victim to survivor, adopt a “why not me?” mindset, practise forgiveness, and be of service. The tone is honest, raw, and surprisingly funny in places, especially as she and host Jeannine compare their very different 20‑something lives in Los Angeles. Anyone juggling shame about the past with a desire to change will recognise themselves here and might walk away asking: if she can do it, why not me?
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