Emma Guinness
Former Playboy Bunny Holly Madison has claimed that she was forced to act 'dumbed down' because that was how Hugh Hefner preferred his women.
The Playboy founder's former number one girlfriend made the revelation on her Girls' Next Level podcast, where she reflected on her seven-year stint with the mogul.
Holly, now 42, made the revelation alongside Bridget Marquardt, 48, who also dated Hefner and starred in the reality show Girls' Next Door.
Advert
"I think Hef thinks a woman acting stupid and acting helpless is cute, and that's how a woman should be," Holly said while discussing the taste of Hefner, who died in 2017 at the age of 91.
"I think he prefers that, encourages it, profits off it, exploits it, but he's also going to make fun of somebody for that and I don't think it's cool.
"There are many things that I was disgusted at myself for putting up with while I was there, and that was one of them.
"I'm like, 'why the f*** am I living in this world where everybody acts stupid all the time?'"
While Bridget agreed that what Holly was saying was true, she said that not every woman in Hefner's world changed herself to suit his demands.
Holly, however, admitted that she did and said over the years she spent at Hefner' side, she felt herself getting 'dumber'.
"I felt like my memory started to get s****y, I was forgetting things, and I started to get a stammer sometimes when I would speak," she added.
"I was like, 'I feel like I'm being so dumbed down by being here and being in this routine. All these girls were acting stupid because they know it's the way they are going to get approval, and it's just driving me up a wall."
Despite both women being in a relationship with Hefner for years, they said they never enjoyed sex with the Playboy founder on the podcast.
The pair also stressed that it was something they actively avoided and never used it for their own material gain.
"People ask, 'did you use sex to get things?' I can imagine how people might have an idea that girls might have an imagination of how girls might show up in the middle of the day with nothing on under their robe and proposition Hef[ner] in the middle of the day to get something," she said.
However, Holly stressed that at the time she was living at the Playboy mansion, Hefner was an 'old man' and therefore only wanted to have sex on nights out - and even then it allegedly wasn't a regular occurrence.
"He had a lot of energy for his age, but he was only mentally and physically ready to have sex on the nights out," she stated.
But both Holly and Bridget did admit that in order to stay as Hefner's girlfriends, they did have to have sex with him when he felt able to.