Featured Image Credit: Alex Henry Moore/WireImage via Getty Images/Vinnie Zuffante/Getty Images
Topics: Hugh Hefner, Celebrity
Gerrard Kaonga
Topics: Hugh Hefner, Celebrity
Two former Playboy models reflected on the moment when they decided to leave their life at the Playboy Mansion behind.
Models Karissa and Kristina Shannon, 35, were shot into the world of glitz and glamour when they moved into the Playboy Mansion at 19-years-old, with the twin sisters later becoming Hugh Hefner's girlfriends.
The twins were later featured on the final two seasons of Girls Next Door, which focused on the lives of the magazine founder's girlfriends, Holly Madison, Kendra Wilkinson and Bridget Marquardt.
"We shot those and we overnighted them and literally got a call the next day," Kristina told People Magazine in an exclusive interview.
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"They were like, 'We want to set you girls up for a test shoot in Miami.' And we were like, 'Holy cow.' "
However, life in the Playboy Mansion wasn't all it cracked up to be, with the experience being 'traumatic' for the two women.
Calling it a 'culture shock', Kristina said: "We were literally just teenagers. We were all natural. We didn't have fake teeth. We didn't have fake boobs like the other girls or fake hair. We just walked around with natural faces over tan because we were always in the sun in Florida."
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They claimed they were subject to 'jealousy' from other girls due to the 'special attention' on them from Hefner, and eventually their religious beliefs became a 'big problem', with Karissa adding: "We had no family that was there to back us up like a lot of the girls."
READ MORE:
HUGH HEFNER'S EX-GIRLFRIEND SAYS LIVING IN PLAYBOY MANSION WAS LIKE A 'CULT'
KENDRA WILKINSON DETAILS LIFE IN PLAYBOY MANSION THAT LATER CAUSED HER 'SEX PROBLEMS'
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The sisters left the mansion in 2010, and in the years following, they went through a number of hardships, including the death of their grandmother and Kristina's DUI in 2014 - leading some to compare them to past Playmate, Anna Nicole Smith.
Kristina said: “Everyone was saying we were going through our 'Anna Nicole [Smith] phase. We gained weight. There was alcohol and pills.
"We were really unhealthy and lost and, even at points, suicidal. We had no one. It was just us, trying to figure it out after losing ourselves."
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Smith rose as a popular Playmate in the 90s and early 2000's, however, her life would tragically be cut short in 2007, when she died at the age of 37 due to combined drug intoxication.
Karissa and Kristian also noted that they'd both come to the conclusion that they couldn’t keep this up for the long-term, with Karissa adding: “Kristina and I decided to move. We didn't know where to go, so we decided to go back to where we were born and leave L.A.
“We sold the beauty salon we owned at the time, and said, 'Let's get the hell out of here and live a simple life. Let's just start healing.”