Former playmates have compared the notorious Playboy mansion to the Manson cult and it’s no wonder why.
Everyone knows the Playboy franchise — whether it be from the hit show The Girls Next Door, Hugh Hefner in his silky red robes, or the infamous bunny logo. But what most people don’t know is that the Playboy mansion was also filled with poor living conditions, drugs, rape, and more. Since the death of Hugh Hefner, numerous former Playmates including Holly Madison, Bridget Marquardt, Kendra Wilkson, and more, have come out to reveal Playboys’ dirty laundry.
Here are 5 disturbing things that happened in the mansion:
- Hugh Hefner had crazy sex rituals with the girls
Holly Madison revealed in her book that a sex orgy was expected every night after the bunnies went out. All the girls were expected to initiate sexual intercourse and get naked. In Madison’s interview on the Call Her Daddy podcast, she stated that many of the girls would find excuses, like being on their period, just so they wouldn’t have to fully participate. Madison also claimed that Hefner would get high, watch porn, and masturbate while all of the girlfriends would lay around him in identical clothing.
Kendra Wilkson, another former playmate, also shared some of the disturbing sexual experiences she had in the house, in her book Being Kendra: Cribs, Cocktails, and Getting My Sexy Back. She said, “I had to be very drunk or smoke lots of weed to survive those nights – there was no way around it.” She, then, compared these experiences to a job; she was forcing herself to participate in sexual intercourse.
- The mansion was filthy
Unsurprisingly, cleanliness was not a thing in the $100 million mansion. If you look at old clips from the mansion’s old reality show, The Girls Next Door — and I mean really look beyond the grainy filter — you can see signs of the filthy conditions the girls were forced to live in. The walls and doors were stained with god knows what, there are poop stains from the dogs all over the floors, and, according to Kendra, the smell of the feces was beyond overwhelming.
Holly has stated that no one would potty train the dogs and that they would go where they pleased; it would sit there for days.
- Unusual and manipulative allowances
Everyone seems to think that the playmates were living the life. On the outside, they got to live rent-free in a multi-million dollar mansion, club all the time, and seemingly make millions. However, many of the girls have made it clear that this was simply not the case. Playmate Izabella St. James claimed in her autobiography, Bunny Tales: Behind Closed Doors at the Playboy Mansion, that the girls would get their $1000 allowance handed to them by Hefner every Friday.
What’s even more terrible is that Hefner would decide if each playmate deserved their individual allowance. While he gathered the girls for their payday, he would bring up everything he wasn’t pleased with. Most astonishingly, he would hold back pay if he wasn’t satisfied with their sexual participation.
Holly Madison also revealed none of the girls were allowed to save their $1000 allowances. They had to spend it within the week or Hefner would take it back. They were only allowed to spend it on clothes, makeup, and items to improve their looks. A lot of the time, if the girls were caught saving their money, they’d be punished.
- Rape
Hugh Hefner was a pretty famous guy, there’s no doubt about it. Naturally, famous guys tend to have pretty famous friends, Hefner being no exception. He had a pretty large social circle, including a close friendship with Bill Cosby.
In the past few years, many women came forward and stated that Bill Cosby raped them by drugging them. Over 12 bunnies have also come forward with sexual abuse allegations involving Cosby.
According to her lawsuit, when Judy Huth was 15, she and a friend of hers met Cosby while he was filming a movie in Southern California. He invited the girls to his club, served them drinks, and took them to the Playboy Mansion. Huth stated that Cosby violently molested her after she came back from the bathroom.
Several other survivors have come out to speak on their trauma. P.J. Masten was one of the two playmates who shared her story in depth, going into gruesome detail and emphasizing that when she spoke up, she was told to keep quiet. She even stated that she knew of 12 other mates who were drugged and raped by Cosby, but are too scared to come out.
Masten worked at the Playboy Clubs and when she was in Chicago, the club was entertaining Cosby and his friends. He invited her to hang out with them and when she agreed, without suspicion, they took her up to their hotel room.
“The next thing I knew, it was 4 o’clock in the morning,” she alleged. “I woke up in a bed naked, bruised. He was laying next to me, and I slithered out of the bed… I got myself together, I went downstairs, I got in a cab, and I went home.”
When Maston told her supervisor, she was told: “‘You know that’s Hef’s best friend, right? Nobody is going to believe you. I suggest you keep your mouth shut.’”
It is assumed that Bill Cosby used Playboy to indulge in and cover up his sex crimes. It’s incredibly unlikely Hugh Hefner had no idea of his good friend’s devious acts against women and his employees.
- Drugs
Numerous playmates have openly admitted to the excessive drug use that Hefner introduced them to at the mansion. Holly Madison recalled on her Call Her Daddy episode that when she first started to get closer to him, in hopes of living at the mansion, she thought he was trying to trick her when he offered her some. She stated how the franchise publicly branded itself as a drug-free establishment.
After declining the offer, she says he looked her in the face and took quaaludes right in front of her. Before she knew it, she was luding up every night in preparation for their mandatory sex rituals.
Likewise, his ex, Sondra Theodore (1976-1981), revealed that quaaludes were very strong drugs and perfect sex initiators. She said that men would get girls to do whatever they wanted if they just gave them one.
Many of the girls have confessed to turning to drug use to get through the hell of the mansion.
The late Hugh Heffner has been glamorized in the media for creating one of the biggest franchises in the world with people idolizing him and his bachelor lifestyle. However, the secrets of the Playboy Mansion speak for themselves. Heffner’s Playboy was a living hell for most of the playmates and has left them with real trauma.If you are interested in finding out more about Playboy’s dirty secrets, I recommend watching Holly Madison’s interview on the Call Her Daddy podcast, reading all of the girls’ memoirs, or watching the A&E documentary, “Secrets of Playboy.”