Mixed reactions. Since the premiere of Secrets of Playboy, Hugh Hefner‘s family and friends have weighed in with their thoughts about the A&E docuseries.
Some of the late Playboy founder’s associates have slammed the series as “ridiculous,” while others have corroborated the participants’ claims. Crystal Hefner, who was married to the media mogul from 2012 until his death in September 2017, confirmed one of the stories Holly Madison told in the Monday, January 24, series premiere.
The Vegas Diaries author, 42, claimed that Hugh would use a disposable camera to take photos of “intoxicated” women who visited the Playboy Mansion. The Holly’s World alum lived in the mansion from 2001 to 2008 while she was dating the Chicago native.
“So, if you were messed up and if you were in his bathtub with your top off and some other girl is doing some sexually explicit pose on you, and he took a picture of that on his disposable camera, he’d make a copy and give it to everyone that night and put it in a scrapbook,” Madison recalled.
After Secrets of Playboy premiered, Crystal, 35, tweeted that she later found “thousands” of the photos the Girls Next Door alum described. “I immediately ripped them up and destroyed every single one of them for you and the countless other women in them,” she tweeted on Monday. “They’re gone.”
Crystal hasn’t always been so publicly supportive of her husband’s ex-girlfriends. Last year, she said that some of the women who’ve spoken out against Hugh would never have become famous if it weren’t for him.
“I think everyone’s entitled to their opinions. I think for some it was a lot harder than for others,” she said during a September 2021 appearance on E!’s Daily Pop. “For some of them, you know, being there is what got them attention. So, to keep talking about it and talking about it keeps the attention on themselves. A lot of the women speaking out negatively wouldn’t be where they were if it wasn’t for Hef.”
Earlier that year, however, she acknowledged that Madison “went through some very hard things” while she lived at the mansion. “I understand that Holly is probably finding healing by speaking about her experience, for sure,” the model exclusively told Us Weekly in April 2021. “I noticed because I’m trying to find my own healing as I reflect back.”
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