Debra Messing and Melanie Lynskey make eye-opening discoveries that they’re related to other stars
Debra Messing and Melanie Lynskey were shocked to discover they had famous — if distant — relatives on Tuesday’s episode of Finding Your…
Chanting ‘la la chicken blah’ and swigging from a bottle of vodka outside a Bernie Sanders rally on Saturday, she could be any one of the homeless people who live on the streets of downtown LA.
But this is once-glamorous Loni Willison, the former wife of Baywatch star Jeremy Jackson seen in exclusive DailyMail.com video bantering with photographer Ava Rosate and showing off her tattoos.
The tragic 41-year-old has been living rough since 2018 when she was photographed dumpster diving in Venice Beach and has resisted repeated attempts to help her.
Last year, Jackson told DailyMail.com he had gone out of his way to try to get her off the streets – only to be rebuffed.
‘I lost the love of my life. I lost the only woman I’ve ever proposed to, the only woman I’ve ever wanted to marry,’ Jackson told DailyMail.com.
‘Losing her was like the death of somebody, and I tried to bring her back and I couldn’t. The woman I was in love with is gone, and whoever she is mentally now is not who I knew.’
Baywatch star Jeremy Jackson’s homeless ex-wife Lori Willison, 41, was spotted in downtown LA outside a Bernie Sanders speech
Photographer Ava Rosate spoke to the former fitness model about where she was going and if she had a cell phone, which Willison brushed off with a swig of vodka and instead showed her the various tattoos she had on her body
Bernie Sanders’s appearance in Los Angeles was a part of his Fighting Oligarchy tour alongside New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
Tragically, that appears all too true with DailyMail.com’s photos showing her looking disheveled and weather-beaten – and a far cry from the stunning blonde she used to be.
Loni has never spoken about what sparked the downward spiral that led to her current hand-to-mouth existence and appeared more interested in showing off her ink during the conversation with Rosate.
She also showed off a chain she was carrying about with her and claimed she was ‘up in front of the judge tomorrow morning’ – an impossibility as the courts are not in session on Sundays.
Subsequent enquiries by DailyMail.com found no record of any legal trouble or of her being arrested or charged with a crime.
The clip ends with Loni repeatedly chanting ‘la la chicken blah’ to Rosate, telling her that’s what to say to ignore the haters and that she wants to head back to Venice Beach.
‘She was a very nice lady,’ Rosate’s mother Maria, who filmed the encounter, told DailyMail.com.
At one point, Willison chugged the bottle of vodka and then went on a bizarre rant to her haters chanting ‘la la chicken blah’
In video filmed by Rosate’s mother Maria, the weather-beaten Willison said she was due in court the next day – even though courts aren’t open on Sundays – and waved a chain around her head
After her marriage to Jackson fell apart, Willison went AWOL for two years before she was photographed dumpster diving in Venice Beach in 2018
Jackson said in a previous interview with DailyMail.com that the last time he saw Willison was four years ago after an explosive argument resulted in a heavily publicized 911 call that ended their two-year marriage
‘When we were parting, she told us to ‘stay healthy and stay safe’. She is a kind soul.’
Loni, who is from Hemet, California, first met Jackson when she was a teenager working as a porn star.
In Jackson’s telling, she was ‘a 19-year-old girl being used for money on video: multiple partners, anal, you name it, the whole shebang.’
Despite that, the pair fell in love with her ex-husband describing her as having ‘magic energy’ despite being lost ‘in the world of porn’.
But the seeds of her spectacular fall from grace were also evident with Jackson saying she drank constantly throughout their first four years together.
‘I was a young kid. I was sober, and she drank all the time,’ he said. I wanted to help her, and my heart broke for her.’
Willison and Jackson initially split up and then reunited four years later, getting married in 2012. Jackson said it was an uphill battle to help her with her alcohol addiction
Loni, who is from Hemet, California, first met Jackson when she was 19 and working as a porn star. She appeared in the 2015 porn movie Jesse’s Girls and We Live Together Volume 20
Jackson told DailyMail.com that he also helped her to become a certified esthetician and used his Hollywood contacts to get her work as a fitness model
A four-year split followed, during which Loni moved to Las Vegas to pursue her porn career and also worked as a prostitute.
The couple reconnected after Loni gave up her porn career and instead worked as a stripper on weekends.
Jackson told DailyMail.com she had opened up about her past to him which included a succession of violent drug-addicted boyfriends, including one that had forced her into her early porn work.
He said: ‘That broke my heart. I wanted to be the difference for her. I didn’t support the porn. I didn’t support the stripping. I didn’t think that was sexy or cool.
‘I felt like that was destructive to her spirit. But I didn’t force her or tell her she had to stop. She’s got to make her own choices. We all do.’
The two began dating again and eventually married in 2012. Jackson, who had become wealthy off the back of his acting career, paid off her student debts and went on to lavish money and help on his now ex-wife.
Willison told Jackson about her past, which included a succession of violent drug-addicted boyfriends, including one that had forced her into porn
Loni remains homeless and living in Venice Beach. Maria said their encounter was very sweet and that Willison told the duo to ‘stay healthy and stay safe’ when they parted
That included putting her on a meal plan, paying for laser treatment to remove scars on her face and dental work to replace teeth damaged by drugs.
He also helped her to become a certified esthetician and used his Hollywood contacts to get her work as a fitness model.
‘All of these interviews where they say she was a model, that’s not what she was,’ Jackson explained.
‘I got her into magazines. I got her into fitness. She didn’t do that before me. I helped her transition from porn and stripping to being a professional model and a fitness competitor. I helped her.’
But while Jackson was able to help steer her away from drugs and porn, he wasn’t equal to dealing with her deteriorating mental health, which in the final year of their marriage included worsening panic attacks, hallucinations and breakdowns.
He told DailyMail.com: ‘She was hearing things. She was seeing things, and she was accusing me of things that were completely delusional. She would have massive breakdowns, panic attacks.
Willison dumpster diving in Los Angeles in 2023
‘She would come home from work, crying, scared she was going to stab somebody at the doctor’s office.’
Jackson says he tried everything he could think of to help her, including taking her to therapy sessions, going to church together and spending thousands of dollars on medications he hoped would help.
Unknown to him, however, Loni was stealing from him. ‘She secretly took my name off the cars because we were married,’ he said.
‘She changed my billing address with the IRS and was trying to get loans and tax returns to a different address instead of mine.
‘She was trying to hostile takeover my finances without me knowing.
When matters came to a head over his arrest, which was initially on attempted murder charges but ended with him accepting a caution, Jackson says he blamed himself for what had happened – sparking an extended period in therapy.
Jackson said he would help Willison in a flash if she asked and that his company InnerG Wellness has resources for addicts
He had no idea what had become of Loni, but pictured her having a good life – only for that to crumble when photos emerged in 2018 showing her living rough.
‘When I saw the pictures online was the first time I realized what had happened,’ he told DailyMail.com.
‘I was sad because I pictured her out there happy, happy with the car she stole from me and the money she stole from me living her best life.
‘Then I saw her and I said, “oh my God.” I had wanted her and I to have a fairytale outcome. I couldn’t allow myself to see that she was actually insane.’
Despite his efforts, Loni – who mostly lives in Venice Beach – has repeatedly declined offers of help and shelter, most recently from Rosate who is heard encouraging her to get a phone.
Friends have also tried to help and Jackson told DailyMail.com he would help her in a flash if she ever asked for it.
‘My company InnerG Wellness has alliances with the best sober companions, the best psychiatrists, the best retreats, women’s support, battered women’s shelters, you name it,’ he said.
‘My Rolodex, my access is at her disposal. My only focus in life, my only mission in life is to have the answers for people when they’re ready.’
