She rose to fame after the release of E!’s Girls Next Door reality series that highlighted three women who shared the responsibility of being Hugh Hefner’s girlfriends. Holly Madison lived at the Playboy mansion as one of Hefner’s most trusted ladies from 2001 to 2008, and she has kept several secrets of what happened behind those doors.
For decades, the Playboy mansion was where the rich and famous would visit to party unlike any other location in Los Angeles. Celebrities have often shared their wild stories of a house filled with Playboy Bunnies or Playmates and unlimited vices, but in a new interview, Madison is dimming the light that one shone on the illustrious residence.
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“I remember there were times, probably within the first couple of years that I lived there, where I felt like I was in this cycle of gross things and I didn’t know what to do,” Madison shared on Secrets of Playboy, a reported 10-hour A&E docuseries. She claims that she was heavily encouraged to maintain a look that mirrored her peers, and when she changed her hair, Hefner was not happy.
“I came back with short hair and he flipped out on me,” Madison recalls. “And he was screaming at me that it made me look old, hard, and cheap.” Fellow Girls Next Door girlfriend Bridget Marquardt also dated Hefner from 2001-2008 and corroborated Madison’s recollection of events.
“Hef would be pretty abrasive in the way he said things to Holly,” said Marquardt. “She came down with red lipstick one time and he like, flipped out and said he hated red lipstick on girls, [and that she] should take it off right away. Even though other people could wear red lipstick and it didn’t seem to bother him.”
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Hefner’s girlfriend Sondra Theodore, who reportedly dated him from 1976 to 1981 added that the Playboy mansion was more stressful than the outside world seems to think, and even in that environment, people were still having lots of sex. How? Alleged drug use.
“Quaaludes, down the line, were used for sex,” she added. “Everything felt good to touch, everything felt soft and soft focus, and it was lovely. Usually, you just took a half. Now, if you took two, you would pass out. It was such a seduction, and the men knew this, that they could get girls to do just about anything they wanted if they gave them a Quaalude.”
Secrets of Playboy premieres on January 24.