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Recently, Hugh Hefner's former employees and ex-girlfriends have been spilling the "dark secrets" of the Playboy Mansion. A&E's docuseries, Secrets of Playboy particularly talks about the magazine's legacy in the #MeToo era. Partly based on the memoir The Dark Secrets of Playboy by Hef's butler Stefan Tetenbaum, the late industry giant is now under scrutiny for alleged rape and abuse of power. A number of loyalists, including Hef's son, Cooper Hefner continued to defend his "unconventional" lifestyle. But to many viewers, people should be paying attention to Tetenbaum's "hair-raising stories." Here's everything he's revealed about Hef's world.
Hugh Hefner's Butler Exposed Playboy's 'World Of Power and Abusive Manipulation'
Tetenbaum wrote his book almost 40 years ago, but at the time, "Hefner had tremendous power to stop anyone looking to tell this story," he said. "My story at the Playboy Mansion West during the peak years [of] 1978-80s was an extraordinary period of Playboy Enterprises' power and fame," the author said in an exclusive statement to Variety. "Working alongside Hefner gave me incredible insight into the daily life and times of such a complex man and the world he created. It was his world — private and hidden."
He added that the book talks about "the dark underbelly of the treatment of his girlfriend and the other women who wanted to be part of the Playboy world professionally and behind the bedroom doors. Only these people who lived there knew the truth of what was expected from them. I was not able to publish this book until now because the publishing world could not take a risk with such a giant figure in the media world. Hefner had tremendous power to stop anyone looking to tell this story."
He also acknowledged that some people might not believe his claims. "No one could believe these hair-raising stories then and a certain group of loyalists to Hefner still can't believe that this world of power and abusive manipulation was true," he continued. "This book is finally able to be believed because almost all the chapters have unfolded during the last few years. This is a time that the #MeToo movement and Time's Up era have opened the eyes of many to believe my story in 2022."
What Hugh Hefner's Exes Have Said About Life In The Playboy Mansion
After seven years of being Hef's number one girlfriend, Holly Madison left the Playboy Mansion in 2008. Recently, she described living with the late publisher as "very cult-like." She even said that she pretended to think everything in there was great. "I started to feel like I was in love with him in a very like, looking back on it, I feel like it was a very Stockholm syndrome type of thing," she said of her "main girlfriend" position. "I just felt like I identified with him and he was complimenting me so much in the beginning, and I just started to, in my mind, blame all the other problems on the other women. Like, 'Oh, this is a miserable situation, but if these other women weren't here, it wouldn't be like that."
She also revealed that Hef's live-in girlfriends followed a strict 9 PM curfew. "I'd almost like locked myself into this box, in a way, which wasn't hard to do there, because it's a very cult-like atmosphere, anyway, and you're manipulated to feel that way," she said of the mansion's "strict code of conduct" that got even more "toxic" later on. "My own kind of shame kept me there, too," she continued. "I couldn't really imagine a life outside of there. Like I thought, 'Okay, this is my last stop. If I want to have kids, I'm going to try.' And then when I knew that wasn't going to be a possibility with him, like we tried in vitro and everything. It didn't work. I was like, 'Okay, well, if I'm not going to have kids here, that's something I need to think about. This is really like a death sentence, in a way.'"
Kendra Wilkinson also said that she felt trapped inside the mansion when she was dating Hefner. "Nights were hard because while my Playmate friends got to go out and party, I would have to be home by 9 p.m," she recalled. "I'd get a text message from a girl that read, 'Having so much fun in Vegas. Wish you were here! Partying with all these football players,' and that was devastating. I felt so trapped and angry when I was missing out on something good."
Hugh Hefner's Son On Growing Up In The Playboy Mansion
Hef's son, Cooper Hefner has fond memories of the Playboy Mansion. "This really acted as a pretty traditional home - even though it's not a traditional home - for me and my brother, especially when our parents were together," said the U.S. Air Force reservist. "When my mom and dad separated and he bought the mansion next door, he broke down the wall and my brother and I went back and forth between both properties."
He also clarified that he didn't live his dad's crazy lifestyle and that his upbringing was pretty normal. "It's funny because it's such an iconic place and obviously the whole world probably sees it as one thing which is this mecca for or****," he said, "but the reality is, is for me, it has always represented a sort of Indiana Jones adventure. Because when I was a kid, there was none of that going on and I was swimming around here and that's what it was to me."
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