Crystal Hefner has a new book out about what it was like being married to Playboy founder Hugh Hefner and living in the famed Playboy mansion.
And most of the things the blonde beauty had to say in the tell-all titled Only Say Good Things: Surviving Playboy And Finding Myself was not very flattering.
Probably the most searing was her admission that though she loved the mogul she was not ‘in love’ with him, the 37-year-old pinup told People this week.
And she did not appreciate how he micro-managed her appearance by telling her what nail color to use, when to dye her roots and how to dress.
The star also said that her husband – who was 60 years older than she – turned from his lover to his ‘caregiver’ as he became ill from an infection that eventually took his life.
Hefner died from age 91 in 2017 in Los Angeles.
Crystal Hefner has a new book out about what it was like being married to Playboy founder Hugh Hefner and living in the famed Playboy mansion. And most of the things the blonde beauty had to say in the tell-all titled Only Say Good Things: Surviving Playboy And Finding Myself was not very flattering. Seen in 2011
Probably the most searing was her admission that though she loved the mogul she was not ‘in love’ with him, the 37-year-old pinup told People this week. Seen in 2014
The book comes out January 23, 2024.
Crystal also shared that she was frightened by the prospect of being Mrs Hefner.
When the magazine magnate first proposed marriage in 2010 after a year of dating, she said yes but then took off in 2011 before they were set to wed.
The timing was horrible as Playboy put her on the cover announcing, ‘Introducing Mrs Hefner.’
The model spent time with Dr. Phil’s son Jordan, but it ended badly, so she went back to Hefner, and decided to give marriage with the senior citizen a chance.
They wed in 2012 – she was 26 and he was 86 at the time.
She remained married to Hefner until his death on September 27, 2017.
He had been twice before – to Kimberley Conrad from 1989 to 2010, and to Millie Williams from 1949 to 1959.
Hef also romanced actress Barbi Benton.
One of the things the San Diego, California native disliked about Hefner is how he oversaw her appearance.
And she did not appreciate how he micro-managed her appearance by telling her what nail color to use, when to dye her roots and how to dress
She appeared on the cover of Playboy after they became engaged
She could not have French manicures but rather needed ‘neutral colors’ on her nails.
Belly piercings were out as the editor deemed them ‘trashy.’
And he wanted her to wear clothing with the Playboy logo on it to help sell product, but she found the garments uncomfortable due to ‘cheap’ material.
Then there was the hair; Hefner wanted the brunette to always be perfectly blonde.
‘I’d have to go bleach it and it would burn my scalp and I’d have blisters,’ she claimed.
‘But for some reason I thought this was all normal and that’s what it meant to be seen as beautiful in Hef’s eyes.’
He also handed her cash allowances in crisp bills while strongly suggesting she use the money to improve her looks even more,
Crystal does admit that she was a bit brain washed, after he boosted her career when he made her the Playboy Playmate of the Month for December 2009 and let her appear on his hit reality TV show The Girls Next Door, which was made famous by his older girlfriends Holly Madison, Kendra Wilkinson and Bridget Marquardt.
‘At the time I thought I was on top. I thought, wow, if I just like everything that he likes and do all the things that he wants me to do, then I’m the favorite,’ she said.
When she began dating Hefner he was also seeing the Shannon twins.
Trying to please Hefner took its toll, however: ‘I just lost myself in the process.’
At the end of the day, she found it too challenging to live under Hefner’s thumb.
Crystal at Sapphire Pool & Day Club grand opening party in 2013 in Las Vegas
‘I realized I was dealing with a really big power imbalance,’ Crystal said.
‘It seemed like a world of success and fantasy, but everyone’s having to sleep with an 80-year-old. There’s a price. Everything has a price.’
Crystal also claimed Hefner was secretly addicted to painkillers and Viagra with an ‘earthquake supply of prosecution drugs’ in his infamous mansion.
The former playmate, said his pill popping was so severe staff were worried he would die of an overdose.
Crystal claimed that Hugh first became hooked on painkillers after being prescribed them for back pain.
He allegedly went on to find doctors to help fuel his addiction with monthly refills, and he became less coherent.
Writing: ‘With so many celebrities dying of overdoses from doctors who gave them endless supplies, people around [Hugh] got more careful, and the opiates had to be given to him like he used to give us allowance—in controlled doses’.
She also claimed Hugh’s hearing was ‘shot’ as a result of his excessive use of erectile disfunction medication.
Writing that the octogenarian would have rather ‘given up a limb’ before giving up Viagra as he attempted to retain his hard-partying lifestyle.
Viagra and similar impotence drugs have been linked to hundreds of cases of sudden hearing loss around the world.
The star also said that her husband – who was 60 years older than she – turned from his lover to his ‘caregiver’ as he became ill from an infection that eventually took his life. Hefner died from age 91 in 2017 in Los Angeles (pictured together in 2014)
Crystal also shared that she was frightened by the prospect of being Mrs Hefner. When the magazine magnate first proposed marriage in 2010 after a year of dating, she said yes but then took off in 2011 before they were set to wed; seen in 2015
It comes after Kendra Wilkinson revealed she was ‘dying of depression’ after struggling with ‘unresolved trauma’ from living in the Playboy mansion.
Hugh’s former girlfriend, 38, recalled being hospitalized just four months ago after suffering from a panic attack.
‘I was hitting the end of my life, and I went into psychosis,’ she told People, ‘I felt like I wasn’t strong enough to live anymore.’
‘I was in a state of panic,’ she said. ‘I didn’t know what was going on in my head and my body or why I was crying. I had hit rock bottom.’
Kendra Wilkinson, seen far right with (from left) Holly Madison, Hefner, Bridget Marquardt in 2005, said recently being with Hugh made her depressed
The reality TV personality revealed that she is now working with a therapist to unpack her trauma, some of which she said was caused by living in the Playboy mansion many years earlier.
Since her discharge, she said she is feeling better after being placed on antipsychotic medication and attending outpatient therapy three times a week.
Reflecting on that time is difficult for her, she said, explaining that she often questions her decisions at that time and finds herself questioning why she was with Hefner — who was 60 years her senior.
‘I was on drugs at age 15 and I had a lot of issues,’ she said about her childhood before she had moved into the Playboy mansion.
‘It’s not easy to look back at my twenties,’ she told the outlet. ‘I’ve had to face my demons.’
About that lifestyle, she admitted: ‘Playboy really messed my whole life up.’
The famed media mogul had three wives throughout his life.
Before Playboy was launched in 1953, Hugh was already besotted with his childhood sweetheart, Mildred ‘Millie’ Williams.
Although the lovebirds were an item whilst he was in the army in 1944 to 1946, Hugh discovered on his return to the US that Millie had been unfaithful.
Despite the infidelity, the couple went on to tie the in 1949.
In Hugh Hefner’s E! True Hollywood Story it was unveiled that Millie allowed the businessman to have extra-marital affairs.
According to the show, this was a result of the guilt she felt for being unfaithful whilst he was in the army.
After divorcing his childhood sweetheart, the media mogul went on to wed Kimberley Conrad in 1989 (pictured: Kimberly, Hugh and their two sons Marston and Cooper in 1998)
The Playboy founder married his final wife Crystal Hefner, 26, at the age of 86 on New Year’s Eve in 2012 (pictured in 2015)
The welcomed two children into the world during their marriage, Christie and David, before they eventually called it quits in 1959.
Hugh married his second wife, Kimberley Conrad in 1989. During their marriage the couple had two boys, Marston and Cooper.
The pair went their separate ways in 1998 but did not officially sign their divorce papers in 2010.
Hugh’s final wife was, Crystal Hefner, whom he popped the question to in 2010.
Only five days prior to their initial wedding Crystal called off their engagement.
Hugh Hefner Crystal married on New Year’s Eve in 2012, aged 86 and 26 respectively.
