For years, the Playboy mansion had kept its secrets to itself, with its high gates and exclusive policy contributing to its history of being a hub for hedonism, promiscuity, and lavish parties.
Because it was considered the ultimate place for debauchery, a ticket into the mansion was worth more than a million dollars. The crème de la crème of Hollywood yearned for an invite and glimpse of the man who owned the place, Hugh Hefner.
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However, its mystery was busted when “The Girl’s Of The Playboy Mansion” launched on E! The show explored the lives of Hugh Hefner’s live-in girlfriends; Bridget Marquardt, Kendra Wilkinson, and Holly Madison.
It lasted for six seasons, and it was a massive success for the network. For the first time in a long time, the public had a full view of Hefner’s home. With craftily manicured landscaping and large oak finished bedrooms, it looked to all as a beautifully kept piece of Gothic-Tudor architecture.
The mansion was initially built in 1927 and purchased by Hefner in 1971. While he occupied a part of the mansion, the west wing of the estate was used for administrative purposes, and the rest was used for entertainment.
The Mansion Was A Toxic Place
Holly Madison was the most vocal and outspoken of all Hefner’s girlfriends. Twenty years ago, she moved into the mansion at 21 years old. Madison began to date Hefner and became one of his main girlfriends. She lived at the villa for ten years and those years were a focus of the show.
Although she initially proclaimed on “The Girls of the Playboy Mansion” that she wished to marry and settle down with Hefner, Madison later attributed what she felt towards him to Stockholm Syndrome.
In 2015, She released “Down The Rabbit Hole,” a book detailing her experiences in the mansion. She mentioned that despite pretending “everything is so great here,” she was lonely and miserable.
“There were days I woke up and just felt like falling to the floor because I felt so depressed,” her book read. “Everyone thinks that the infamous metal gate was meant to keep people out. But I grew to feel it was meant to lock me in. I’d invested every part of myself in the mansion and had nothing waiting for me outside those gates. I felt so trapped and so vulnerable. The climate inside the mansion was toxic.”
The House Was Haunted
Bridget Marquardt, one of Hefner’s girlfriends, was another star of the show. She resided in the mansion between 2002-2009.
However, her memories about the house were a little more uncanny than most. Marquardt explained on the show that she believed the Playboy mansion was haunted.
“I saw a woman,” she said, presuming it to be a former employee’s ghost. “My sister, myself, and my friend Stacy were all sitting on my bed,” Marquardt recalled. “We were talking, having a glass of wine, and the TV was on. All of a sudden, out of the corner of all of our eyes, we saw a woman standing in my closet. Of course, when I turned to look at it straight on, it was gone.”
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“Ghost stories are dating back decades from that mansion,” she proceeded to explain, recounting other encounters such as doors that slammed on their own and visitors feeling some “strange energies.”
Hefner even told her that the house’s original owner had died in the mansion and haunted the grounds till today.
Hefner Promoted The Use Of Hard Drugs
In the show, Madison still had more to reveal. She explained in the show that she was upset by the
“cycle of gross things,” which went on at the mansion.
A former playmate also corroborated Madison’s story. She confirmed “hard drug use,” and Hefner always pretended not to approve of the activity.
“Usually I don’t approve of drugs, but you know, in the ’70s, they used to call these pills’ thigh openers.'” she recalled him saying.
She also said Quaaludes were used for sex frequently. She described orgies where Hefner and the girls will be under the influence of hardcore drugs.
The Mansion Had Strict Curfew
Kendra Wilkinson, Hefner’s third girlfriend, recalled in her book “Sliding Into Home” how the mansion had a curfew, and it made her feel stuck.
As with other playmates who could go to parties and come back anytime they wanted, the live-in girlfriends didn’t have that much freedom.
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“Nights were hard because while my Playmate friends got to go out and party, I would have to be home by 9 p.m,” she wrote. “I’d get a text message from a girl that read, ‘Having so much fun in Vegas. I wish you were here! Partying with all these football players,’ and that was devastating. I felt so trapped and angry when I was missing out on something good.”
