Jesse James is a bad boy — both literally and figuratively.
He's a tattooed, thrill-seeking, motorcycle enthusiast who perfectly encapsulates a certain
"outlaw" archetype, especially with his name.
But he's also engaged in actual bad behavior, from petty crime as a youth to cheating on
America's sweetheart, and even assaulting paparazzi, which he freely and gleefully admits.
So it's no surprise that he was bound to flame out hard.
When the scandal over his infidelities reached a fever pitch, James not only walked away
from his lucrative TV projects, he also shut down his legendary West Coast Choppers garage
in Long Beach, California and left the state for good.
Aside from a few interviews and the release of a tell-all book, he's basically been a
ghost since then.
Here's what happened to Jesse James.
The scandal that started it all
Everyone knows by now that Jesse James cheated on his former wife Sandra Bullock.
He's acknowledged it in the press multiple times.
Four women came forward with accusations that they'd slept with him while he was married,
and suddenly his cheating was was pretty much the biggest celebrity scandal of 2010.
In an attempt to save his marriage and also to understand why he had a tendency for self-destructive
behavior, James went to rehab, but it was too late.
Bullock was done and the marriage was over.
About a year later, James wrote his tell-all memoir, American Outlaw, which he viewed as
a way to move on.
But then James also used his promotional tour to put down his marriage to Bullock and say
that he never felt fully accepted in her social circles in Hollywood.
He also recently implied that he wasn't the only one who cheated in his relationship.
The "Nazi stripper" who wouldn't go away
One of James' mistresses was Michelle "Bombshell" McGee, a stripper and model who was covered
head-to-toe in tattoos — and who would prove to be a thorn in his side long after their
affair was over.
In one of her many, many interviews, McGee revealed that she only got involved with James
because she believed that he and Bullock were already separated — and that their union
was a sham.
"He said, 'listen we can't…
something we can't talk about.
We're not together.
We're separated.
She lives in Austin, I live here we have to do this for the press, we have to pretend
we're married.
McGee seemed hell bent on indefinitely prolonging her 15 minutes of fame, even if it meant repeatedly
tearing open the wound of a destroyed marriage and making herself look awful in the process.
Not only did she bring up Sandra Bullock by name in almost every interview, she famously
posed for a photo in which she was kissing the A-List actress' photo on a magazine page.
She later interjected herself into James' life again when he started a new relationship
with Kat Von D. And all of this came after her bikini photo shoot in which she also donned
Nazi paraphernalia.
This certainly didn't help to bandage James' shattered image because, as they say, birds
of a feather fly together.
Speaking of which ...
Accusations of racism
Just days after those scandalous photos of McGee hit, US Weekly ran a photo of James
wearing what looks like a Nazi officer's cap and doing the Nazi salute.
Of course, the denials were instantaneous, but because he was already such a reviled
figure, the Internet still went nuts.
James later told The Daily Beast,
"I was just wearing a hat and making a funny joke.
I have so many friends of color — black friends, Mexican friends.
They all called me and are like, 'This is so f***ed up.
What are you going to do?'
And you can't do anything.
People see that and really think I'm a Nazi."
He then cited the fact that other famous people had jokingly donned Nazi gear and it was no
big deal for them.
But he admitted that he was already embroiled in public scandals, so it made this look even
worse.
True story.
Packing it up
In 2015, James resurfaced to talk about why he decided to shutter his famed bike shop
and move to Austin, Texas.
He revealed that his marriage to Sandra Bullock imploded at a time when his company, West
Coast Choppers, had grown larger than he ever wanted it to, so James decided he needed to
scale back.
He'd already had amazing success in business and dominated the airwaves with his show,
Monster Garage.
So, by late 2010 he was well-positioned to be calling his own shots.
After closing the Long Beach shop, he retreated to a quiet, $2 million dollar estate in Driftwood,
an affluent area just outside Austin where he resurrected a new, much smaller version
of his former custom metalwork empire.
But his personal troubles were far from over.
More cheating scandals
After his marriage to Sandra Bullock ended, he and fellow reality star Kat Von D announced
they were dating.
His romance with the famous tattoo artist materialized fairly quickly after his split
with Bullock, but it wasn't a happy ending for either of them.
Though their relationship progressed quickly, James was allegedly still not able to control
his wandering eye.
In a shocking Facebook post in 2011, the L.A. Ink star revealed that she'd been cheated
on by James, just like his former wife, by as many as 19 women.
Von D would later describe their relationship as "toxic," but declined to shame or humiliate
James, instead taking the high road and expressing pity for him.
She wrote,
"I think it just made me sad today to imagine him still in that dark place — where seeking
validation through the attention of women takes precedence over being a good father,
a sincere friend, a better coworker, and a happy individual."
A new career path
After scaling back his custom bike business to the point of near non-existence, James
retreated into a period of creative self-discovery.
"My eyes are wide open and I'm trying to do stuff in a different way."
Through his study of ancient architecture, design, and metal fabrication, he became interested
in making his own custom gun parts.
After getting tons of interest from posting one of his finished projects online, he decided
to create his own niche business building handcrafted weapons, which he decided to call
Jesse James Firearms Unlimited, or JJFU.
Another marriage
In 2013, Jesse James married driver Alexis Dejoria, who just so happens to be the daughter
of John Paul DeJoria, the billionaire shampoo and tequila magnate.
Her father and James were old friends, and when DeJoria invited James to watch his daughter
race, he probably didn't count on her almost instantly feeling a spark with one of the
world's most notorious adulterers.
But Alexis also admitted to her own checkered past, which helped put Jesse's messy past
love life into perspective.
Through their mutual love of racing and dedication to their respective passions, they seem to
be enjoying each other by diving headlong into work — and staying out of the spotlight.
"I don't want to say anything to jinx it but it's good.
It's good to like... have someone who you can just be yourself with."
So … fourth time's a charm?
Hopefully?
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