Being a bunny in the Playboy Mansion and experiencing the world of glamour was the dream of many attractive women from all over the country and beyond. But as it turns out, what was happening behind closed doors wasn’t even close to what the world got to see and how the life with womaniser Hugh Hefner was portrayed.
For many of the live-in girlfriends, the life inside the estate in Holmby Hills, California, was far from a fairy tale.
Over the years, many of Hefner’s girls opened up about the life with him and spoke of the sex rituals and the humiliations and emotional abuse they experienced.
Many said the place was always filled with dog poops and the mattresses were old and worn, so no matter how much they tried making their rooms feel homey, they failed. They made a bunch of heartbreaking confessions during interviews and by writing what they had to go through in their books.
In her book Down the Rabbit Hole: Curious Adventures and Cautionary Tales of a Former Playboy Bunny, Holly Madison writes, “Maybe it was the pot and the alcohol, but drowning myself seemed like the logical way to escape the ridiculous life I was leading.”
Sleeping with the multimillion-dollar enterprise owner was nothing special.
“There was zero intimacy involved. No kissing, nothing. It was so brief that I can’t even recall what it felt like beyond having a heavy body on top of mine,” Madison said speaking to Mirror. In fact, most of the bunnies simply saw it as part of their job.
Kendra Wilkinson wrote of the sex rituals with Hefner in her book Sliding Into Home. “At about the minute mark, I pulled away and it was done. It was like a job. Clock in, clock out. It’s not like I enjoyed having sex with him,” adding how she couldn’t do it sober, so she smoked weed or had to be very drunk to go through those nights.
From what they had to say of the Playboy founder, he never really cared for their well-being. In the book Jill Ann: Upstairs, Jill Ann Spaulding confessed, “No protection and no testing. He doesn’t care.”
Those living in the mansion were given $1,000 allowance each Friday and they describe this experience as humiliating as they were often being told off and commented on their looks before getting the money. Missing any of the parties could easily mean missing the allowance, according to the book Bunny Tales: Behind Closed Doors at the Playboy Mansion.
The life of the beautiful and attractive blondes was far from perfect, as everyone believed.
“Everyone thinks that the infamous metal gate was meant to keep people out. But I grew to feel it was meant to lock me in,” stated Madison, according to Mirror.
Hefner died in 2017. “Hugh M. Hefner, the American icon who in 1953 introduced the world to Playboy magazine and built the company into one of the most recognizable American global brands in history, peacefully passed away today from natural causes at his home, The Playboy Mansion, surrounded by loved ones,” Playboy Enterprises confirmed in a statement. “He was 91 years old.”