Nearly a decade after Hugh Hefner\u2019s death, his widow is still dealing with the alleged abuse she experienced being married to him for almost five years \u2014 and fighting over private images she says were taken without her consent. <\/p>\n
\u201cI had to have sex with strangers I didn\u2019t even know,\u201d Crystal Hefner, 40, told Page Six in an exclusive interview. \u201cIt was humiliating. It was embarrassing.\u201d<\/p>\n
In February, her attorney, Gloria Allred, announced regulatory complaints in California and Illinois over the Hugh M. Hefner Foundation\u2019s handling of his private archive, including approximately 3,000 scrapbooks allegedly containing intimate photographs.<\/p>\n
Crystal Hefner has said she regrets marrying Hugh Hefner. Elayne Lodge\/PEI<\/p>\n
Crystal said some images were taken without consent <\/a>and raised concerns about possible images of minors. Hefner\u2019s sons Cooper and Marston, whose mother is Kimberley Conrad, disputed that implication.<\/p>\n Crystal said she wanted women entrusted with the material \u2014 and intimate or nonconsensual images destroyed.<\/p>\n \u201cI think he kept all of this, all these women in there as trophies,\u201d she told The Post.<\/p>\n The couple remained married until the Playboy founder\u2019s death in 2017. Getty Images for Playboy<\/p>\n \u201cHe would have some just named, you know, Monday, Wednesday, and it would be a naked woman. It\u2019s disgusting. <\/p>\n \u201cHe had a sex book, a black book where he logged everybody he slept with.\u201d<\/p>\n Crystal, a model and former Playboy Playmate, was 26 when she married Hefner in 2012. She remained his wife until his death in 2017 at age 91.<\/p>\n A strict curfew was among the restrictions she recalled from her mansion years. Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n \u201cI came from a broken home. I didn\u2019t have a father,\u201d she said. \u201cHef chose people he could easily manipulate.\u201d<\/p>\n Her accounts of being pressured into sex <\/a>echo allegations made over the past decade by other former Hefner girlfriends, including \u201cGirls Next Door\u201d stars Holly Madison and Bridget Marquardt<\/a>.<\/p>\n Crystal said Hefner built his Playboy empire by collecting women with \u201cbroken wings\u201d before subjecting them to \u201chumiliation ritual(s).\u201d <\/p>\n Even his longtime secretary Mary recognized the pattern, according to Crystal.<\/p>\n \u201cMary told me that \u2026 Hef chooses the broken ones. He collects the ones with the broken wings,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Hugh Hefner and his then-girlfriends Kendra Wilkinson, Bridget Marquardt and Holly Madison starred in \u201cThe Girls Next Door.\u201d Getty Images<\/p>\n Looking back, Crystal (above) says the mansion\u2019s glamorous image hid a much darker reality. WireImage<\/p>\n \u201cHe should have been getting us all a therapist instead of a one-way ticket to his bedroom.\u201d<\/p>\n Being married to Hef and living in the Playboy Mansion bore little resemblance to the image of a carefree pleasure palace presented to the public.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was like a humiliation ritual up there. And all orchestrated by this man,\u201d said Crystal, who still struggles with understanding why she married Heffner.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s something I think about every day. If I could go back \u2026 I absolutely wouldn\u2019t have.\u201d<\/p>\n On an Oct. 14 podcast episode of \u201cConsider Before Consuming,\u201d Crystal criticized Hefner for dating twin sisters while in a relationship with her, saying \u201cthe incest was okay for him\u201d<\/a> in reference to his involvement with the siblings.<\/p>\n She also alleged that Hefner treated women as sex conquests and had a particular interest in sleeping with both a Playmate and her daughter.<\/p>\n The Playboy founder\u2019s personal archives have become the subject of regulatory complaints. Charley Gallay<\/p>\n \u201cIt was kind of a game for him.\u201d<\/p>\n Crystal also took aim at comedian Jon Lovitz, calling him \u201cone of the biggest pervs\u201d<\/a> in Hollywood and claiming he was the Playboy Mansion\u2019s \u201cNo. 1 customer,\u201d<\/a> during Tuesday\u2019s episode of the \u201cLisa Guerrero Unleashed\u201d podcast.<\/p>\n \u201cHe would be up there all the time,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n \u201cHis eyes would go front to back [looking at] all the women that walked through the door at the party.\u201d<\/p>\n Jon Lovitz (above) was the Playboy Mansion\u2019s \u201cNo. 1 customer,\u201d according to Crystal Hefner. STAR INFLUX LA \/ BACKGRID<\/p>\n Lovitz\u2019s rep did not respond to Page Six\u2019s request for comment. In a video obtained by Page Six, he joked that he took the \u201cNo. 1 customer\u201d claim as a \u201ccompliment\u201d and said that \u201cHugh Hefner was one of the nicest, most generous people.\u201d<\/p>\n Hefner\u2019s reputation took a major hit in 2015, when Holly Madison \u2014 one of the three original stars of E!\u2019s \u201cThe Girls Next Door\u201d<\/a> \u2014 published her revealing memoir, \u201cDown the Rabbit Hole.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI learned Hef was the manipulator,\u201d she wrote. \u201cHe pitted us against one another.\u201d<\/p>\n Hefner rejected her account, accusing some former partners of choosing to \u201crewrite history in an attempt to stay in the spotlight.\u201d <\/p>\n Former partners have offered differing accounts of their years with the magazine founder. Bruno Bebert\/EPA \/ Shutterstock<\/p>\n Hefner\u2019s relationships were a defining part of his public persona. Getty Images<\/p>\n Fellow \u201cGirls Next Door\u201d star Bridget Marquardt later described pressure surrounding her first sexual encounter with him.<\/p>\n \u201cI was hoping that I could just observe and not participate,\u201d she recalled on \u201cGirls Next Level\u201d in 2022. <\/p>\n Her assessment of her time with Hefner was nevertheless mixed: That same year, she said \u201c98 percent\u201d of her mansion experience was positive.<\/p>\n Kendra Wilkinson, the third original star, <\/a>told People in 2024: \u201cPlayboy really messed my whole life up,\u201d describing deep regret over her relationship with Hefner.<\/p>\n Hefner, however, insisted his lifestyle was authentic and described it as one of \u201ctremendous satisfaction.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt doesn\u2019t get better than this, and I know it,\u201d he told CNN in a 2010 interview<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat you see is the real deal. I mean, the life is essentially who I am.\u201d<\/p>\n Hugh Hefner surrounded himself with girlfriends (above) at the Playboy Mansion. WireImage<\/p>\n By the final years of his silk pajama-clad life, however, Hefner\u2019s business was in decline.<\/p>\n Playboy\u2019s circulation had fallen from roughly 5.6 million in 1975 to about 800,000 by 2015, ABC News reported.<\/a> The magazine, which had featured sexy centerfolds and naked celebrities since its 1953 debut, dropped nudity from its pages in 2016. <\/p>\n It reversed course the following year.<\/p>\n The mansion sold for $100 million in 2016<\/a>, half its original asking price, under a deal that allowed Hefner to keep living there<\/a> until his death.<\/p>\n Crystal Hefner has spoken publicly about her years at the Playboy Mansion. WireImage<\/p>\n