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Hugh Hefner's widow exposes Playboy Mansion's dark side and 'embarrassing' orgies

Crystal Hefner was the third and final woman to marry Hugh Hefner and her new book 'Only Say Good Things: Surviving Playboy and finding myself' will lift the lid about the 'toxic' mansion

[Hugh Hefner ]

Crystal Hefner was married to Hugh Hefner up until his death in 2017 aged 91 (Image: Crystal Hefner/Instagram)

Crystal Hefner is just days away from publishing an explosive memoir about her dark marriage to Hugh Hefner.

The title is called Only Say Good Things because this was what her controversial husband instructed her to do for after he was gone.

But Crystal, who was born in America but lived above a pub in West Bromwich briefly as a child, is ready to expose the secrets she has kept buried since Hef died seven years ago.

READ MORE: Inside wild lives of Hugh Hefner's children from shock arrest to selling sexy pics

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The description on the back of the book paints a bleak picture with one paragraph stating: In 2008 the Playboy mansion became Crystal Harris's sanctuary a shimmering vestige of opportunity. Within months she had ascended its hierarchy to become Hugh Hefner's top girlfriend. But her new home came at a cost.

"Forced to follow strict rules that governed everything from her appearance to behaviour, she began to lose her identity. By the time she married Hef in 2012, the mansion had become her prison.

[Crystal Hefner ]

The Playboy mansion is described as her 'prison' on the back of her new book (Image: Instagram/crystalhefner)

Before the book comes out, here's what we already know about Crystals time at Playboy.

She was 21 when she met the lad mag titan at a Halloween party at the Los Angeles mansion and the pair had sex hours later something she described as nothing remarkable.

But the blonde beauty said her time as a young adult was stolen that night and they married five years later when she was 26 and he was 86. They tied the knot after Crystal claimed she was forced to compete with his other girlfriends to become his third and final wife.

The unlikely duo initially bonded after realising they had both studied psychology at university. But after moving in with the pensioner, she ditched her education to focus fully on his needs.

This involved changing the way she behaved and dressed, and speaking to The Sunday Telegraph in 2018, she said: I've never been the heels and dress and full makeup, I've never been that kind of person. Maybe I felt like I had to be in the role I was in, being Playmate or being a part of Playboy, that I had to be dolled up.

I think now I am more myself, which is the more down-to-earth, minimal makeup, that is where I feel the most comfortable.

[Crystal Hefner ]

Crystal now works as an ambassador for game and NFT collection First Ape Wives Club (Image: Instagram/crystalhefner)

Crystal later said it was right that her relationship was so widely judged and admitted she would never allow her own daughter to marry a man 60 years her senior.

But Hef was no ordinary Joe and Crystal, now 37, claimed he picked what colour nail polish she was allowed to wear and set strict rules like having a 6pm curfew.

She was also fed the same meal every night (chicken soup with cream cheese and crackers) before having to sit through movies of his choosing.

But rather than heading off to catch some sleep, she then was expected to take part in orgies, something she described as embarrassing.

She told the Daily Mail: I dont know the most people thered been in our bedroom at one time but a lot. Pretty bad. We were like, Oh, now its your turn.

Nobody really wanted to be there but I think in Hefs mind, he still thought he was in his 40s, and those nights, the people, the mansion, solidified that idea. He felt, Ive still got it.

[Crystal Hefner ]

She was expected to take part in orgies with Hefner every night (Image: Getty Images for Playboy)

Some outsiders have suggested to Crystal that the solution would have been to leave but she said her circumstances made such a choice impossible.

Her dad died when she was 12 and her mother struggled month to month to get by and she described feeling like she had nowhere else to go when she lived in the mansion.

And while she was there, she also felt immense pressure to fit up to the Playboy image. This included having 34D silicone breast implants. But chasing the perfect body with plastic surgery almost killed her after the implants began to poison her.

Remembering having to put on a brave face during a grim Playboy shoot, she told the Chillin with Ice podcast: I had implants and one of them was trying to come out of my body because my body was rejecting it so I said, Oh, can you tweak that one like back to straight?

The implants took eight years to make her ill and she eventually had them removed before she decided to inject fat from other parts of her body into her breasts, despite only weighing just over eight stone.

[Crystal Hefner ]

The blonde bombshell finally removed her implants after they made her sick (Image: Instagram/crystalhefner)

Opening up about the trauma, she said: To get the fat easier they fill your body with fluid, so you kind of look big and puffy on the operating table. All the places he went in for the lipo he kept the holes open so that the fluid can drain out.

But I just ended up losing too much blood maybe my iron levels were low before I went in there, maybe he should have checked, but I ended up going to the ER and my haemoglobin dropped to below seven [from an average of between 12 and 16].

"They said we can't let you leave without a blood transfusion so I ended up getting a blood transfusion and slowly got better.

The former Playmate later took to Instagram, where she has three million followers, to highlight it as another example of the unrealistic body image she developed from her time at Playboy.

She wrote: Our culture is a trap and makes women feel terrible about themselves. Movies (84.9% directed by men) make it worse. Social media makes it worse.

Advertisements make it worse. Physically fake people make it worse I was one of them. Women are overly sexualised. I know from the worst kind of experience.

[Crystal Hefner ]

The author says she has had a record number of pre-orders for her new memoir (Image: instagram.com/crystalhefner)

Being overly sexualised by Hefner is something she is going to expose in her new book after previously saying it was fortunate for her husband that he missed the MeToo movement, which started after his death.

But summarising her time with Hefner and explaining why now is the right time to open up, she told The Mail: My relationship and marriage to Hugh Hefner was a very complicated one. It was one where, no matter how I was treated, I always felt like I had to protect him, which is why I have not shared my story until now.

Since his passing, I have had to do a lot of self-discovery. I have had to find out who I am without it being dictated to me. I have had to not only find my voice, but I also had to learn how to use that voice. My book is a testament to the power of time, processing all that I have been through and embracing my truth.

In recent days she told her fans on Instagram that she was so excited about her book launching in the UK on January 25. She said she had a record number of pre-orders and that even her harshest critics are giving glowing reviews.

Crystal added: It has all been so surreal. I cant wait to get this book to your hands and ears. Its definitely the book I wish I would have read as a young woman. I hope you enjoy the lessons it holds.

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