EXCLUSIVE: Hugh Hefner’s widow Crystal vows to expose the ‘dark side’ of the ‘toxic’ Playboy mansion in ‘raw’ tell-all memoir – as she admits she hid the truth for years because she felt obligated to ‘protect’ her late husband
- Crystal attended her first party at the notorious Playboy mansion aged just 21
- The now 37-year-old will release a tell-all memoir titled Only Say Good Things
- It will lift the lid on how ‘the lifestyle that once seemed alluring had a dark side’
Hugh Hefner’s widow Crystal is set to lay bare the ‘toxic objectification and misogyny’ she faced while living in the Playboy mansion – after spending years hiding ‘her story’ because she felt obligated to ‘protect’ her late husband.
The 37-year-old will release a new tell-all memoir, titled Only Say Good Things, to candidly explore how her young adulthood was ‘stolen’ after attending her first party at the notorious mansion at just 21 years old.
She will reveal how the business mogul ‘picked her out from the crowd’ to become ‘one of his infamous “girlfriends”‘ before the couple, who shared a 60-year age gap, tied the knot on New Year’s Eve in 2012.
But Crystal, who was treated to a life of traveling the world and attending glamorous Hollywood parties, is now set to lift the lid on how ‘the lifestyle that once seemed so alluring had a dark side.’
Hugh Hefner’s widow Crystal is set to lay bare the ‘toxic objectification and misogyny’ she faced while living in the Playboy mansion, DailyMail.com can exclusively reveal
The 37-year-old will release a new tell-all memoir, titled Only Say Good Things, to candidly explore how her young adulthood was ‘stolen’ after attending her first party at the notorious mansion at just 21 years old
DailyMail.com has been given exclusive insight into the memoir’s ‘raw and unflinching’ revelations ahead of its publication in January 2024.
The book will expose how Hefner ‘governed the lives of his girlfriends with strict rules on everything from their looks to curfew with Crystal forced to compete with other women for her spot in the highly hierarchal system.
‘She quickly rose to the top but being Hefner’s number one girlfriend came at the cost of Crystal’s identity outside her role at Playboy.’
The blonde beauty said that people ‘reveled in ridiculing her and the other young women which further chipped away at her self-worth.’
She will explain that Hefner had ‘surprised her with a proposal’ and that the offer was ‘one she could not imagine refusing – but Crystal was left wanting ‘to understand who she truly was away from Playboy’s toxic culture.’
The model, who is now an ambassador for game and NFT collection First Ape Wives Club, has since undergone a ‘transformative journey from valuing external validation over all else to finally recognizing her worth.’
Speaking exclusively to DailyMail.com earlier today, Crystal admitted: ‘My relationship and marriage to Hugh Hefner was a very complicated one. It was one where, no matter how I was treated, I always felt like I had to protect him, which is why I have not shared my story until now.
‘Since his passing, I have had to do a lot of self-discovery. I have had to find out who I am without it being dictated to me. I have had to not only find my voice, but I also had to learn how to use that voice. My book is a testament to the power of time, processing all that I have been through and embracing my truth.’
The book will expose how Hefner ‘governed the lives of his girlfriends with strict rules on everything from their looks to curfew with Crystal forced to compete with other women for her spot in the highly hierarchal system’
The blonde beauty said that people ‘reveled in ridiculing her and the other young women which further chipped away at her self-worth’
Crystal has previously confessed that she adopted a more ‘down-to-earth’ lifestyle after Hugh died, trading in stilettos for sneakers and makeup for a more low-key regimen.
Speaking to Australia’s The Sunday Telegraph in 2018, Crystal said: ‘I’ve never been the heels and dress and full makeup, I’ve never been that kind of person. Maybe I felt like I had to be in the role I was in, being Playmate or being a part of Playboy, that I had to be dolled up.
‘I think now I am more myself, which is the more down-to-earth, minimal makeup, that is where I feel the most comfortable.’
In recent years, she has become one of the famous faces to turn her back on plastic surgery.
Crystal had her breast implants removed in 2016 after she realized her they were ‘slowly poisoning’ her after more than a year of feeling sick.
DailyMail.com has been given exclusive insight into the memoir ahead of its release
Her health problems which included infections, fatigue and days she could not get out of bed, were first diagnosed as Lyme Disease and toxic mold poisoning, before she found a Facebook group about breast implant illness.
‘It took eight years for me to realize I was getting sick from my implants. These implants were wreaking havoc in my body for eight whole years,’ she wrote on her website in September 2018.
Though she does in fact have the Lyme disease, she said that the implants only made it harder for her body to fight off the infection.
In 2020, she suffered yet another setback when a fat transfer procedure almost claimed her life, revealing: ‘I lost half the blood in my body and ended up in the hospital needing a blood transfusion.’
‘I should have learned my lesson the first time but I guess the universe keeps sending you the same lesson until you learn it,’ she added.
Last year, Hefner took to Instagram with a candid post which read: ‘I removed everything fake from my body and deleted all my old photos.
‘I am more authentic, vulnerable and feel that I belong more to myself. I am mine.’
Crystal is not the first of Hefner’s former partners to have spoken out about the dark side of his personality.
In 2022, in an episode of the 10-part A&E series Secrets of Playboy, Holly Madison, who was with Hefner from 2001 to 2008, claimed he kept ‘all kinds of naked pictures’ of women so he could allegedly use them as a form of blackmail.
She will reveal how the business mogul ‘picked her out from the crowd’ to become ‘one of his infamous “girlfriends”‘ before the couple, who shared a 60-year age gap, tied the knot on New Year’s Eve in 2012
Last year, Hefner took to Instagram with a candid post which read: ‘I removed everything fake from my body and deleted all my old photos’
The former model said she remained with Hefner at the Playboy Mansion in part because she was frightened that he would publish the photos.
‘His friends were always so supportive and speaking so highly of him,’ Madison said in the documentary.
‘But that’s the only side of him they ever saw. They had no idea what was going on behind closed doors and how the women were treated.
‘When I lived at the mansion, I was afraid to leave. Something that was always lingering in the back of my mind, I think since the very beginning, was that if I left there was just this mountain of revenge porn just waiting to come out.’
Madison added: ‘When you would go out with Hef, he’s taking all kinds of naked pictures of these women when we’re wasted out of our minds.
‘And he would print out like eight copies for him and all the women, you pass them around. It was just gross.’
And Crystal herself confirmed the allegations after claiming she ‘found thousands of those disposable camera photos.’
She said: ‘I immediately ripped them up and destroyed every single one of them for you and the countless other women in them. They’re gone.’
The book will expose how Hefner ‘governed the lives of his girlfriends with strict rules on everything from their looks to curfew with Crystal (right) forced to compete with other women for her spot in the highly hierarchal system’
She has previously confessed that she adopted a more ‘down-to-earth’ lifestyle after Hugh died, trading in stilettos for sneakers and makeup for a more low-key regimen
Hefner died of natural causes at the age of 91 in his famed Playboy mansion in Holmby Hills, California, in 2007. He had been married to Crystal for five years at the time.
The Illinois native was buried at the cemetery near UCLA where Marilyn Monroe and Farrah Fawcett rest.
In 2018, Crystal Harris found a buyer for the Hollywood Hills home that was left to her by the late Playboy founder for $5.5 million.
She originally listed the California pad in January for $7.2 million, just four months after her husband died.
Hugh had bought the four-bedroom home for his third wife Crystal for $5 million in 2013, when the couple were living together in the Playboy mansion.
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