THE Playboy brand and its founder Hugh Hefner are well known around the world, but in the 2000’s, the brand was iconic.
The mansion in which Hugh lived with the Playboy Bunnies even featured on E!, the same network as Keeping Up With the Kardashians.
The Girls Next Door TV show aired for five years from 2005 until 2010 and featured both Holly Madison and Bridgit Marquardt.
Both women, who are now 44 and 50 respectively, looked back on when they each dated the millionaire, in a recent episode of the Girls Next Level podcast.
Holly dated him between 2001 and 2008, while Bridgit dated him between 2002 and 2009.
Always replaceable
“I shared a room with Hef, and I never really felt like I could,” Holly said.
“There were a couple times I had surgery so I couldn’t go out that night.
“I took a couple nights off, and the way that was reinforced for me is both of those times he moved a new girl into the house behind my back.”
She said it was “f***** up” how the girls he would ‘replace’ her with were women she didn’t know.
“I had to go find another room if I was sick and then all these girls are going through a room that’s also mine, with my stuff.”
Not so glam on the inside
One of Hugh Hefner’s former “girlfriends,”, Izabella St. James, previously revealed the grimy reality of life inside the Playboy Mansion in her 2006 memoir, Bunny Tales.
She wrote about the “mismatched” bedrooms, with “random pieces of furniture”.
“It was as if someone had gone to a charity shop and bought the basics for each room,” she added.
Izabella claimed the “mattresses on [the] beds were disgusting old, worn and stained”, and described the bed sheets as “past their best”.
She also referenced a bad smell that lingered in the Mansion.
The book regaled: “Everything in the Mansion felt old and stale, and Archie the house dog would regularly relieve himself on the hallway curtains, adding a powerful whiff of urine to the general scent of decay.”
“Hugh was very charming”
As for why these young women lived in these alleged conditions, Holly, who started dating Hugh when she was just 21, confessed: “I found him very charming.”
Speaking on Channel 4’s Secrets of Playboy, she added: “I think I was drawn to try and be in the spotlight because I felt like if I could be famous, that would be a shortcut to feeling a connection with people.”
But she found herself feeling “trapped” by Hefner’s stringent rules.
Holly recalled an incident where he “flipped out” over her trying a shorter hairstyle.
“He was screaming at me and said it made me look old, hard and cheap,” she revealed.
Facts you didn't know about the Playboy Mansion
Girlfriends vs Playmates
Rumour has it that Hugh Hefner would have two to a dozen “girlfriends” living with him at a time. These girlfriends are not to be confused with playmates. Each girlfriend had their own room, but one “special lady” was named as girlfriend number one and stayed with Hef in his room. Each girlfriend received a $1000 a week bonus “allowance.”
Hef’s Wild side
The Playboy mansion is home to a private zoo. It is one of very few private residences that actually has a zoo license. Hefner is a fan of birds and they can be found all over the grounds. There are plenty of peacocks, macaws, flamingos, toucans and ducks. The highlight is a cage that houses approximately 100 squirrel monkeys.
The Elvis Legend
Within the mansion is a secret room, called “The Elvis Room.” Legend has it that the King himself, Elvis Presley, had a little slumber party in the room with up to eight eager bunnies.