Melissa Joan Hart Explains Why She Declined Playboy After Family’s Bad Experience with Maxim

Former child star Melissa Joan Hart has revealed why she turned down an offer to pose for Playboy magazine – after her father and brother were ridiculed over another saucy shoot she did. 

In 1999, Hart, 49, appeared on the cover of Maxim magazine, a spread that had more consequences than originally intended.

Not only did she nearly get fired from Sabrina, The Teenage Witch, but her brother and father were ‘tortured’ by the shoot. 

The thought of her family enduring more mockery over the shoot ultimately led to Hart turning down the offer, she revealed on the latest episode of Kate and Oliver Hudson’s podcast Sibling Revelry.

‘I did Maxim magazine once and my brother was pretty young, he was like in middle school or high school, and I did Maxim magazine and he and my father were both being tortured by people at work going like “Look at your daughter! Look at your sister!” And then Playboy magazine came and asked me to do something, and I was like, “I can’t do it.”

‘”I can’t do it”, and they offered me a lot of money, and I was like, “I can’t do it because I don’t want my brother to be hurt… the last thing he needs. He’s already getting tortured by me and underwear.’

Now a mother of three, Hart is happy she made the decision she did. 

‘And I would have been willing to do it because I was like, I’m not ashamed of my body. I’m proud of my body. I’m fine with that. But then I’m really glad I didn’t, because now I have three boys and I don’t need those images out there for them.’

‘Kind of happy I made that choice for my brother, which then also translates to my children,’ she said. ‘I always kind of knew that that would be a correlation that someday I would have children, what do I want them to see? And I kind of played that through my sibling’s eyes.’ 

The Clarissa Explains It All star was 23 when she posed topless and in her underwear for a Maxim cover in October 1999.

But the shoot almost cost her her role on Sabrina, The Teenage Witch as the cover violated a clause in her contract with the show.  

‘While I’m at the party, my lawyer shows up and goes, “You did a photoshoot for Maxim magazine?” I’m like, “Yes, I did.” They’re like, “Well, you’re being sued and fired from your show, so don’t talk to the press. Don’t do anything.”‘

The magazine cover featured a headline that read ‘Sabrina, Your Favorite Witch Without a Stich!’

The usage of the character’s name violated a clause in Hart’s contract with Archie Comics, under which she was never to portray the teenage witch naked.

She stated ‘so, here they were thinking I’m in breach because I’m playing the character. No, that was supposed to be me promoting [Drive Me Crazy].’

The actress said she only did ‘whatever my publicist told me to do at the photo shoot. Like I did a photo shoot for Maxim! It’s Maxim, of course you’re gonna be in your underwear’.

Hart also did not expect to have her role on Sabrina referenced in the magazine.

‘It wasn’t supposed to be a character. I had no control over what they wrote on the cover,’ she said.

But she was able to defuse the situation by writing a letter of apology, after which she was able to keep her role as Sabrina.

Hart said the ‘drama’ surrounding the magazine cover ended up giving her movie a publicity boost.

She stated that the racy image ‘made for Drive Me Crazy to come out and be a huge success.’