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Playboy Bunny 'imprisoned' by Hugh Hefner and 'gross' aspect of sex 'still haunts'

Hugh Hefner's ex-wife Crystal has lifted the lid on the disturbing reality behind the Playboy Mansion's glitzy facade, describing mouldy conditions, surveillance and group sex that Playmates called 'hell'

[Kristina Shannon, Karissa Shannon, Hugh Hefner and Crystal Harris]

Kristina Shannon, Karissa Shannon, Hugh Hefner and Crystal Harris(Image: WireImage)

"I was imprisoned," said Hugh Hefner's ex-wife Crystal after the Playboy mogul's death.

The pair had first encountered each other when Crystal was 21 and 'Hef' was 60. On New Year's Eve 2012, they wed and stayed together until a sepsis-triggered cardiac arrest claimed the multi-millionaire's life at 91 in 2017.

In her autobiography released following her husband's death, she depicted a troubling portrait of existence within his hedonistic Playboy Mansion - an account subsequently supported by numerous former Playmates.

Countless other Bunnies have characterised living with Hefner as "hell", exposing details of uncomfortable group encounters, clandestine intimate recordings used for coercion and humiliating domestic duties in his "hoarder" residence.

Here's everything Playmates have revealed about life and intimacy with Hef, reports the Mirror.

"Everything was mouldy"

[Hugh Hefner with Karissa Shannon, Kristina Shannon and Crystal Harris]

Hugh Hefner with Karissa Shannon, Kristina Shannon and Crystal Harris(Image: WireImage)

In her memoir, Crystal described Hefner as "less sex-savvy than some of the teenage boys I'd been with years ago" and claimed intimacy with him was "odd and robotic". When the moment for romance arrived, she alleged she would play the same Madonna track so that "no other music [would] be contaminated" for her.

However, disappointing intimacy was hardly the most dreadful aspect of existence as one of Hefner's Playmates. Behind the glamorous exterior, Crystal alleged the Playboy Mansion was a wreck, saying: "Everything was mouldy and dusty and it was just hoarder central in the mansion."

On the podcast Girls Next Door, co-hosted by Holly Madison, a former girlfriend of Hefner's, and Bridget Marquardt, another ex-Playmate, they painted a grim picture of Hefner's bedroom, describing it as a "disaster".

Bridget said: "The lights were out, but there were two giant TV screens in there that were playing porn."

Holly added: "It was just hoarder-style... It's like the weird eccentric millionaire version of the guy with the mattress on the floor and a Pulp Fiction poster."

Dirty 'toys' and Hef's "black book"

[Hugh and Crystal Hefner / James Ward]

Hugh Hefner and Crystal Hefner attend Playboy Mansion's Annual Halloween bash (Image: Getty Images for Playboy)

In the docuseries, Secrets of a Playboy, former Playboy valet Stefon Tetelbaum gives a stomach-churning account of the mansion's state. She admitted: "I had to put on rubber gloves and pick up the dildos from the floor and put them in a special bucket.

"The maids would take them downstairs, spray them with a steam cleaner to sterilise them and then put them in plastic bags. I would carry them back upstairs and put them back in the headboard."

Despite the chaos, Hef maintained a tight grip over everything that transpired in the mansion. Bridget alleges that he kept a "black book" to monitor how much each Playmate had been paid, who had slept with him and when it had occurred.

If girls hadn't been intimate enough with him, he would use the black book to call them out. Holly remembered: "He'd be like, 'Oh, you've been on your period for three weeks.'".

Blackmail and Big Brother

Hef also allegedly maintained round-the-clock surveillance throughout the mansion, with recording equipment capturing footage in every room - even when Playmates pleaded for them to be turned off. "He was a voyeur," said Stefon.

"Hefner taped everything in his bedroom and many men and star athletes came into the bedroom and had sex with these girls."

Hef would subsequently hoard these recordings, featuring hundreds of women, and exploit them for blackmail purposes. In 2022, Crystal tweeted: "I found thousands of those disposable camera photos you are talking about... I immediately ripped up and destroyed every single one of them."

Another preferred pastime of Hef's was group encounters, which Holly described as "disgusting". She went on: "He wouldn't move. He would be like a bump on the log in the middle of the bed. I can't explain to you guys how embarrassing that whole routine was... You're literally sitting there naked having sex in front of a group of people who hate you and talk sh*t about you while you're having sex. It was like hell.

"Like having sex with your grandpa"

[LOS ANGELES, CA - JANUARY 16: Hugh Hefner (C) poses with Playboy Bunnies, Playmate of the Year 2013 Raquel Pomplun (2nd L) and Miss December 2009 Crystal Hefner (2nd R) at Playboy's 60th Anniversary special event on January 16, 2014 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Rachel Murray/Getty Images for Playboy) 60 Playmate Bunnies Celebrate Playboy's 60th Anniversary]

Following Hefner's death, his widow, Crystal Hefner, complained of controlling and restrictive behaviour(Image: Rachel Murray/Getty Images for Playboy)

Twin sisters Kristina and Karissa Shannon, who were welcomed into Hefner's bedroom on their 19th birthday, claimed they were coerced into a threesome with the then 82-year-old. They alleged he provided them with a tablet that left them feeling "the most inebriated we've ever been" before being propositioned for the threesome, which "we would never want to do".

"It's like having sex with your grandpa," Karissa revealed, explaining that afterwards they "ran down the hall... We hit the shower, steaming hot. Our skin was red from just trying to sterilise."

The pair also spoke of recurring chlamydia infections at the property, as Hef refused to wear protection. "From the butlers, we'd just order a big bowl and we'd put hot water in it, then we'd put rags in it," Karissa explained.

"So whoever was having intercourse with him, when they were finished, they can wipe him off. And then the other girl could do it."

Kendra Wilkinson, another ex-partner, recalled: "I had to be very drunk or smoke lots of weed to survive those nights there was no way around it."

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