Playboy Bunnies 'resented' Hugh Hefner for brutal Christmas rule inside Mansion
There were certain privileges to being one of Hugh Hefner's 'girlfriends' – but the series of leggy blondes who lived at the Playboy Mansion had to make sacrifices too
Playboy boss Hugh Hefner maintained a retinue of young, blonde ‘girlfriends’ throughout his long life at the notorious Playboy Mansion. But while the young women Hefner chose as his companions enjoyed regular celebrity-packed parties and the services of an in-house chef, they were forced to obey some very strict rules.
Aside from restrictions about makeup and the length of their hair, Hefner’s women were supposedly never allowed to spend Christmas with their families.
Former Hugh Hefner girlfriend Holly Madison explained all on the Girls Next Level podcast that while she’s always loved Christmas, the holiday season was even more important within the Playboy Mansion because it was one of the few markers of passing time amid the “groundhog day” existence behind the Mansion’s forbidding walls.
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Holly recalled that when MTV filmed a special Christmas episode of the Girls Next Door reality show, it was “one of the first times I'm seeing myself on camera being authentically enthusiastic about something”.
But as enthusiastic as Holly was about the Christmas season, she wasn’t ever allowed to spend the day with her family. She went on: “I know a lot of the girls who were girlfriends back in the seven girlfriends era really resented that.
"They wanted to be home on Christmas – you could ask to go the day before if you were close by, or maybe do like a quick visit before or after but you were expected to be there on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.”
Holly had Moved into the mansion at the age of 22. For the next seven years, Hefner, some 54 years her senior, completely controlled Holly’s finances, enforced a strict schedule and curfew, and banned her from working anywhere except within the Playboy empire.
She eventually split with Hefner, and was replaced by Crystal Harris – who went on to be one of the few “girlfriends” to actually marry the ageing soft porn baron.
She recorded her own Christmas video at the Mansion, showing off the lavish decorations, including a massive tree adorned with “35 boxes of LED lights” and a vintage ornament depicting Marilyn Monroe – Playboy’s first-ever centrefold.
Hefner never actually met Monroe – he bought the nude photos that helped launch his Playboy empire from a calendar company for just $500 – but he was obsessed with her throughout his life.
Despite his endless parade of blonde “girlfriends,” the woman he chose to spend eternity with was Marilyn Monroe. He spent $72,000 on a burial plot next to the iconic star’s resting-place in 1992, saying at the time: ”I will be laid to rest in a vault next to hers. It has a completion notion to it. I will be spending the rest of my eternity with Marilyn."
"I'm a believer in things symbolic," he explained.. "Spending eternity next to Marilyn is too sweet to pass up."
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