3 Strange Rules Hugh Hefner’s Girlfriend’s Had to Follow
The Playboy empire is a subject of extreme controversy, especially in recent years, following the release of a scathing documentary titled Secrets of Playboy. Many critics have labeled founder and figurehead Hugh Hefner, who passed away in 2017, as an alleged perpetrator of sexual abuse and exploitation. Additionally, several of Hefner’s girlfriends have spoken out against the late mogul, with former The Girls Next Door star Holly Madison slamming her late boyfriend for putting a series of strict rules in place that his girlfriends had to follow.
Hugh Hefner founded ‘Playboy’ magazine
Hefner was born in 1926 and raised in a middle-class family. However, Hefner had big ambitions, leaving his job as a copywriter to found Playboy magazine. The magazine originally featured short stories, essays, and photo spreads, but it quickly became known as a publication for men to salivate over pictures of nude and nearly-nude women.
Over the years, Hefner became closely associated with the lifestyle he promoted in Playboy. He lived in a luxury mansion, hosted lavish parties, and hobnobbed with many celebrities and pop culture figures. In the early 2000s, Hefner received a new wave of interest when he was featured in the reality series The Girls Next Door, which showcased the octogenarian spending time with his three beautiful girlfriends.
Hefner died in 2017 at the age of 91. He left behind a complicated legacy, with some believing that the mogul helped promote a free-spirited lifestyle and others firmly in the camp that Hefner was an abuser.
Hugh Hefner dated countless women over the years
Hefner was married three times over the course of his life, according to IMDb. His first marriage was to Mildred Williams. They were married from 1949 until 1959, before they divorced. Following their split, Hefner took up with Kimberley Conrad. Their marriage lasted from 1989 until 2010. By that time, Hefner had started dating Playboy model Crystal Harris. They were married in 2012 and remained married until Hefner’s death.
In addition to his marriages, Hefner dated many women, most of them much younger than he was. Holly Madison is possibly his most famous girlfriend, but he was well-known for his affinity for dating multiple girls and young women simultaneously.
What rules did Hugh Hefner allegedly institute for his girlfriends?
Madison has been vocal about her days with Hefner, and after she left the Playboy Mansion around 2008, she started opening up about the problems she experienced there. As reported by Nicki Swift, Madison claimed that one of the requirements for dating Hefner was that the girlfriends participate in group sex. “It was always Wednesdays and Fridays after the club,” Madison told BuzzFeed News. “It was always exactly the same because that’s just how he likes to live his life.”
Hefner also reportedly instituted a curfew for his girlfriends, reportedly because he didn’t want any of the women he was associated with to be seen with other men. Izabella St. James, another one of Hefner’s girlfriends, claimed that while the girlfriends were allowed to live at the Playboy Mansion rent-free, they were also given a weekly cash allowance. St. James wrote in her memoir, Bunny Tales: Behind Closed Doors at the Playboy Mansion, that the process was humiliating. “We had to go to Hef’s room, wait while he picked up all the dog poo off the carpet — and then ask for our allowance,” the model said. “We all hated this process.” While Hefner might have been a hero to some, it seems as though his personal life was more than complicated.
