Hugh Hefner’s ex-girlfriend Sondra Theodore claims the Playboy founder once “owned the LAPD” and would blackmail members of the media if he deemed it necessary in an exclusive interview with In Touch.
“He did so many things a man would go to jail for, with the underage drinking, underage women and in later years, seven girlfriends,” Theodore, 65, tells In Touch.
Theodore appears in A&E’s new 10-part docuseries, Secrets of Playboy, which includes never-before-seen footage captured at the iconic mansion in Los Angeles, California, as well as exclusive interviews with insiders. Part 1 of the docuseries aired on January 24.
In hindsight, Theodore speculates his lifestyle was a result of his power, prestige and fame. “He got away with it because he owned the LAPD at the time,” she alleges. “He had security that were at least officers and higher up, and he had protected himself in many ways with the press.”
“His secretary once told me that he allowed the press to come up for parties because most people would do something stupid when they got up there,” Theodore claims. “And he had them on videotape. So that years down the road, if they decided to report something negative, well then, all he had to do is say, ‘Oh, I don’t think so.’ And let them know what they had.”
“So, there were many ways that he protected himself throughout the years. If there was anything negative about Playboy, it usually was stifled immediately,” she explains about how it allegedly stayed under wraps for so long. “The long arms of legal reached out and nipped it in the bud. He just had his ways, and he was a very powerful, powerful man and controlling.”
Theodore adds that even “dating twins” would “not have gone over” today, addressing his relationship with former girlfriends Kristina and Karissa Shannon. The twins, both 32, appeared on The Girls Next Door after Hefner’s exes Holly Madison, Bridget Marquardt and Kendra Wilkinson left the mansion.
“Nobody knows what we have been through and how it feels to be an 18-year-old girl with an 83-year-old man giving oral sex with your twin sister on your 19th birthday is something you can’t forget,” the siblings previously told Radar in December 2021. “We never did anything incestuous, but he made us both have sex with him at the same time all together. If we didn’t, we wouldn’t be allowed to stay.”
Kristina and Karissa said they eventually moved out but are still dealing with PTSD and depression following his death in September 2017. “What we were forced to do in the bedroom ruined us, and we will never be the same romantically,” they added, claiming he enforced a 9 p.m. curfew, would monitor their whereabouts and tell them to dress the same.
The LAPD did not immediately respond to In Touch‘s request for comment.