Hugh Hefner's widow says she was 'brainwashed' while living at Playboy Mansion
Hugh Hefner's widow says she was 'brainwashed' while living at Playboy Mansion
Ayeesha WalshSun, August 23, 2026 at 8:34 PM UTC
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Hugh Hefner was married to Crystal at the time of his death -Credit:Getty Images for Playboy
Crystal Harris, Hugh Hefner's third and final wife, has opened up about the darker reality of life inside the Playboy Mansion, claiming she was "absolutely brainwashed" during her relationship with the late Playboy founder.
The former model, who married Hefner in 2012, made the candid admission while speaking to Firerose, the ex-wife of Billy Ray Cyrus, on the Monday, August 17 episode of the No One Asked Her podcast. Harris said she once viewed anyone who criticized Hefner as being in the wrong — and believed she had to defend him.
“There would be naysayers,” Harris recalled, “there would be people that went against him, and I supported him and thought they were weird and wrong.” Firerose, who has previously spoken about surviving what she described as "narcissistic abuse" following her divorce from Cyrus, said she could "so relate" to Harris' experience. It comes after reports that Hugh tipped off the FBI about Jeffrey Epstein.
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She described the feeling as "defending defending your abuser because you've been brainwashed to believe that they can do no wrong." Harris agreed, saying, “I think I was absolutely brainwashed.”
The couple had a 60-year age gap, with Hefner old enough to be Harris' grandfather. Reflecting on how she once spoke about their relationship, Harris said, “Hef was old enough to be my grandfather. We [had a] 60-years difference. In the interviews I’d say, ‘Oh, you know, he’s like a kid! He likes to have fun.’”
Crystal has opened up about her time in the Playboy Mansion -Credit:WireImage
Looking back, she admitted she now questions why she presented the relationship that way. She asks herself, “‘Why did I say that?’” Harris appeared in the final season of E!'s The Girls Next Door, following the departures of Hefner's then-girlfriends Holly Madison, Bridget Marquardt, and Kendra Wilkinson.
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The reality show ended in 2010, with Harris and Hefner marrying two years later. They remained together until Hefner's death in 2017 at age 91. But while The Girls Next Door presented a glamorous and seemingly harmonious picture of life at the Playboy Mansion, Harris has since offered a very different account of what went on behind closed doors.
Hefner became an increasingly divisive figure in the years after his death, with a number of allegations made against him. Former Playmate Susie Krabacher accused him of rape in the 2022 docuseries Secrets of Playboy.
Crystal discussed her experience as Hugh's wife
Harris also detailed her own experiences in her 2024 memoir, Only Say Good Things: Surviving Playboy and Finding Myself. Last month, she revealed that she regrets marrying Hefner.
Speaking to Firerose, Harris explained why she found it so difficult to walk away from the relationship and the life she had built around the Playboy Mansion.
“When people say, ‘Why didn’t you leave? Why were you there?’ I felt at that point so broken down and like damaged goods, where I’m like, ‘Where would I go? I’m worthless. I’m useless. I’m part of this man’s like sexual perversions.’ I felt like trash, to be honest. I felt like this person had me doing all these things, and I just felt like worthless as a person where, if I left, there would be no place in the world for me,” Harris explained.
Firerose grilled Crystal about her life in the Playboy Mansion
She said the constant praise surrounding Hefner only reinforced the belief that she was the problem. Harris said she felt "brainwashed" because “there was nothing out there that validated" her.
She said, "I just thought I was the crazy one because all of the media put Hef on such a pedestal, that I’m like, ‘Okay, if they all see him as this larger-than- life amazing human, there must be something wrong with me.’”
Harris is not the only former Playboy girlfriend to describe feeling trapped by the prospect of leaving. Madison previously spoke about her fears in Secrets of Playboy, revealing that the possibility of leaving Hefner had been accompanied by a fear of what might happen afterward.
She said it was “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.”Like Harris, Madison said she “definitely thought I was in love with Hef.”
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
