We all know a lot about the issues surrounding Hugh Hefner and the Playboy Mansion, but it's worse than many people realize. In September 2022, several former Playboy Bunnies and Playmates spoke out against Hugh Hefner and their time at the Playboy Mansion in the 10-part docuseries Secrets of Playboy, and what they're saying is pretty horrific.
Far from being a good time for all, many of the women who spent real time living with Hugh Hefner are incapable of looking back on their time with the mogul with any positivity. In fact, their reports are pretty disturbing.
In one clip from the series, ex-girlfriend Sondra Theodore describes Hefner as a "predator," and explains, "I watched him, I watched his game. And I watched a lot of girls go through [the Playboy Mansion] gates looking farm-fresh, and leaving looking tired and haggard."
More from LittleThings: Holly Madison Says Hugh Hefner Often Took Nonconsensual Nude Photos Of Her And Playmates
Sondra Theodore also reveals that she was only 17 years old when, as she puts it, Hugh Hefner began grooming her through a combination of substance abuse and words: "He introduced me to drugs. I’d never had a drink or a drug before going up to the Playboy Mansion. And my first night there I was handed champagne and the drugs came later, and I was underage."
She also claims that Hugh Hefner enjoyed sexual experiences with her dog: "I walked in on him with my dog and I said, ‘What are you doing?’ I was shocked. He made it seem like it was just a one-time thing, and that he was just goofing off. But I never left him alone with my dog again."
Hugh Hefner's girlfriend Holly Madison, who was featured as a star on the reality series Girls Next Door, also details her time in the role. In another clip, Holly describes the home as "cult-like." She explains, "It was so easy to get isolated from the outside world there. You had a 9 o'clock curfew. You were encouraged to not have friends over. You weren't really allowed to leave unless it was like a family holiday."
The documentary's director has explained that she didn't go into the experience expecting to unearth these stories. As Alexandra Dean told the New York Post, "I figured it’d be fun, but kind of lightweight."
However, the documentary quickly took on a new tone, and Alexandra became invested. "But as I started to have these conversations [with the survivors of Hefner], the project transformed 180 degrees, from lightweight to super-critical."
Alexandra also spoke with more people than just Hugh Hefner's ex-girlfriends. Through a series of interviews with former colleagues, staff, and the women themselves, she pieced together a documentary that offers a closer, more critical examination of a man who mystified many.
However, it wasn't easy at first to get the women to speak. As she put it, "One of the most striking things about reporting this story was how much fear there was from the contributors about telling the truth, and how slowly they were able to open up. It was a very slow process. I didn’t want to push the story too far, I really wanted people to tell me what they felt comfortable telling me, and that took a long time."
Several people involved also insisted that Hugh Hefner took time ahead of his death to try to ensure that it would be difficult for people to speak out against him. He allegedly had secret cameras all over the mansion so that he could capture and potentially use incriminating and/or explicit material against anyone involved.
