Hugh Hefner's widow has spoken out about the alleged controlling ‘rules’ she had to follow.
The Playboy founder died in 2017 at 91 years old, leaving behind his Los Angeles Playboy Mansion, his ‘Bunnies’ and his third wife, Crystal Hefner, 37.
Known for his ‘girlfriends’ and star-studded parties, he married his final wife in 2012.
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Making her Playboy Playmate of the Month debut in 2009 and being billed as ‘America’s Princess’ in one of her cover shoots, Crystal is now speaking out about the relationship with Hefner.
At 21 and a recent psychology graduate, she applied for tickets to one of his Halloween parties, hoping to meet some celebs.
Successfully receiving an invite, she quickly caught the mogul’s eye and became his lover that night.
Crystal soon worked up the hierarchy of the girls to become his wife on New Year’s Eve.
But she says it wasn’t all so easy-breezy.
She claims she had a 6.00pm curfew when he was in residence to make sure she’d be home for dinner – where every night they ate chicken soup with cream cheese and crackers (surely with so much money you’d want a bit of, well, flavour every now and again?).
And then after watching his favourite movies, she’d be expected to participate in group sex where she tells the Daily Mail ‘nobody really wanted to be’.
To aid the him with all the sex he was so known for, Hefner apparently took so much Viagra he lost his hearing on one side.
Crystal said: “Hef always said he’d rather be deaf and still able to have sex. Weird.”
She now lives in a small home in Hawaii and loves to travel, which she says she was banned from doing by her husband.
Crystal is currently studying for her doctorate in psychology and if she gets it, plans to go back to her maiden name and be known Dr Crystal Harris PhD.
“If I get that, it’s over,” she said.
The ex-wife is also gearing up for the release of an explosive memoir, detailing Hefner’s final years.
Titled Only Say Good Things, it references what the magazine publisher asked her to do after he’d died.
“I was so ‘Team Hef’ and I still am to a certain degree,” she says.
Crystal admitted to understanding why she was judged for her relationship, explaining: "'The other day I found a picture of me with him at the very beginning. It's just so sad. It [she means the image of herself] looks like a baby. I look back and I feel sorry for that girl. There was going to be this Wizard Of Oz moment where the fantasy fades, you draw back the curtain and see the reality of it. But he who has the money makes the rules, right?'
Speaking of his passing, Crystal said: “You can't fault his timing. He dipped out right on time. Hef's lifespan of 91 years, it ended on the cusp of #MeToo.
“Coincidence? I think not.”
To read more about the Playboy Mansion and the explosive accusations against Hugh Hefner, you can check out UNILAD's 'Stripped Back' series which takes us back into the Playboy Mansion, featuring interviews with a variety of people who spent time working and living there with Hefner.
Topics: Celebrity, Sex and Relationships, Hugh Hefner
Jess Battison