"Was Never In Love...": Playboy Founder's Wife Reveals Truth In New Memoir

Late Playboy founder Hugh Hefner's widow, Crystal, is revealing the truth about her seven-year marriage in an upcoming memoir. Crystal, 37, who was married to Hugh Hefner from 2012 until his death at 91 in 2017, candidly shared her experiences as a Playmate with People magazine ahead of the book's release on January 23. 

In the interview, Crystal revealed that despite her public image, she was never truly "in love" with her husband. The model first entered the Playboy Mansion in October 2008 at the age of 21 and eventually began dating Hugh Hefner months later. “At the time I thought I was on top,” she told People magazine. “I thought, ‘Wow, if I just like everything that he likes and do all the things that he wants me to do, then I'm the favourite.' And I was, but I just lost myself in the process.”

When Hugh Hefner initially proposed marriage, Crystal remembers accepting but says she later hesitated. However, she ultimately returned to marry him following what she describes as a tumultuous relationship with Jordan McGraw (Dr Phil's son). 

Crystal admits to caring for Hugh in his final years, acknowledging her love for him but confessing she was never "in love" with him. "I realized I was dealing with a really big power imbalance. It seemed like a world of success and fantasy, but everyone's having to sleep with an 80-year-old. There's a price. Everything has a price,” she said. 

Crystal also revealed that Hugh Hefner had strict rules. He required his girlfriends to collect their weekly "allowance" from him in cash, saying that the money should be used to make themselves look more beautiful. She said, “Our nail polish couldn't be anything but some neutral colour, no French manicure. He would tell me ‘Wear the flag'. That's the Playboy logo and those shirts were uncomfortable and cheap.” She also remembered him saying, “Don't have a belly button ring because that's trashy." 

Hugh Hefner would also point out her roots whenever her natural dark brown hair started to grow, said Crystal. “So, I'd have to go bleach it and it would burn my scalp and I'd have blisters. But for some reason I thought this was all normal and that's what it meant to be seen as beautiful in Hef's eyes."

Crystal Hefner's memoir, ‘Only Say Good Things: Surviving Playboy and Finding Myself', aims to provide readers a deeper insight into her life, shedding light on her experiences as the wife of the Playboy founder.