Holly Madison and Bridget Marquardt, two ex-Playboy girls, have leveled yet another scathing accusation of abuse on disgraced founder Hugh Hefner, claiming that he often pretended to be upset in an effort to manipulate them into having sex.
On the third edition of their Girls Next Level podcast, which debuted last week, the two blondes revealed the unusual information on Monday.
Their new program tries to throw fresh light on their time spent at the iconic Playboy Mansion in the early 2000s. The couple were often in the public eye as two of the magazine tycoon’s major girlfriends.
It comes as a number of other former bunnies have persisted in making similar claims of sexual assault against the late Lothario, who died of sepsis at age 91 in 2017.
Former Playboy bunnies Holly Madison (left) and Bridget Marquardt (right) have leveled yet another scathing abuse accusation against the organization’s notorious founder Hugh Hefner, claiming that he often pretended to be upset in an effort to have sex.
The two ladies stated in their individual accounts of their interactions with Hef that he often seemed to be upset in an attempt to ‘get his way’.
Madison, 42, described her negative experiences as a Girl Next Door to 48-year-old colleague presenter Marquardt. “Like if we were upset about anything or questioned about something, he would start fake sobbing,” Madison recounted.
And the acting was terrible and blatant.
Madison added, adding that she felt justified when fellow Hefner lover Kendra Wilkinson came into the home in 2001 and inquired about Hef’s weeping game. Madison had been bothered by the behavior at the time but had stayed silent.
Madison remembered Wilkinson asking her, “Does Hef fake cry?” Wilkinson co-starred with the podcasters in the mid-2000s Playboy Mansion-themed TV series Girls Next Door.
After revealing that she had also been victim to the Playboy boss’ crocodile tears, Marquardt continued to blast into Hefner for the manipulative waterworks.
On Monday’s third edition of their Girls Next Level podcast, which debuted last week, the two blondes made the allegation along with numerous others.
During the Monday podcast, Madison raged, “It was absurd how clear it was, but you can’t say anything because he’s the one with all the power in the relationship.” It was insane and not what I would have anticipated from a cultural icon, the speaker said.
Marquardt said, “I do often defend him, but the fake sobbing was a genuine thing. When I initially saw it, I thought, “Wait, what’s going on right now?”
The tycoon’s position of power and her assumption that she was the only one being exposed to the false tears made Madison afraid to speak up when she observed Hefner act upset many times while attempting to lure her into the bedroom, she said.
She said to Marquardt, “For the longest time I never spoke to anyone about it because I believed maybe I was the only one observing this,” and that until she learned that it was also being done to Wilkinson, 37, she recognized how well planned the attempts truly were.
She said she was infatuated with Hefner at the time because of his star-studded fame and larger-than-life demeanor, but after learning the reality, she started to see less of him.
Madison remembered to her colleague host, “I just had this notion in my head of what I imagined Hef was going to be [like] based on what he’d done and what I observed from a distance, and he’s a phony crier.
During their time living in Hefner’s infamous Los Angeles mansion, where they claimed they were humiliatingly required to follow and find him in order to collect a $1,000 or more allowance, the women made a number of other allegations against him. They claimed they were subjected to nine o’clock curfews.
You had to locate this multimillionaire businessman, who was still very much the editor-in-chief of Playboy Magazine at the time, according to Marquardt, and ask him, “Hi honey, can I collect my allowance?”
The ladies said that the weekly stipend included trips to the hairdresser because of their light-colored hair in addition to $1,000 each week for clothing and other necessities.
Despite being classified at the time as one of Hefner’s leading women, Madison said that getting the allowance wasn’t always simple. “We have to have platinum blonde hair, so he pays for the salon fees,” Madison said.
The two of them, along with Wilkinson, were obliged to share the tycoon’s several beds each night without the option of acquiring their own private room, according to Marquardt, who acknowledged that being Hef’s top sweetheart didn’t come with any special perks.
Regarding their protracted circumstance, Marquardt said, “There’s no positive, you don’t get more money, you don’t get treated better.” In reality, it’s worse since you share a room, are always on guard, and are scrutinized. There is nothing you can get away with.
They continued by drawing an analogy between living in Hef’s stable and having a full-time job.
You weren’t permitted to work, you had to be at that home by 9:00 every night, you had to accompany him to all of his public appearances, you had to look and dress a particular way, and you had to be a PR machine for him, according to Madison. Absolutely, it was a job.
Madison also recalled arriving into the home in 2001 and becoming the boss’ top girlfriend right away, feeling like Hef’s “bright new toy, so to speak.”
The former Bunny said that she had no idea what she was getting herself into at the time.