Hugh Hefner Playboy Mansion Shocking Revelations

Buzz Feed

12-05-2025

Earlier this month, former Playboy bunny Holly Madison appeared on the In Your Dreams podcast, where she reflected on her experience living in Hugh Hefner's notorious mansion.
Madison recalled having 'disgusting' group sex with Hefner and other then-Playmates — something that she has detailed numerous times over the years since she started denouncing her time at the mansion. Here's a reminder of some of the most shocking claims that she and other ex-Playmates have made about their experiences:
1. Last year, Madison shared that the mansion was full of trays of 'makeshift lube' everywhere. 'In every bathroom, out on the tennis courts, by the pool, and it would be a tray with Kleenex, Pepto Bismol, Vaseline, baby oil, sunscreen — any kind of makeshift lube,' she told People. 'It was weird.'
2. A couple of years prior, Madison alleged that Hefner used baby oil as lube against her will. 'I remember talking to the gynecologist about it and then telling Hef, 'You need to stop using the baby oil. I can't use it,'' she shared on her podcast, Girls Next Level. 'Even telling him the gynecologist agreed with me, he would argue with me and be like, 'Well, people use baby oil on babies.' And I'm like, 'Yeah, on their skin. Not internally. You're not supposed to put it there.''
3. In 2021, ex-Playmate Sondra Theodore — who dated Hefner for five years in the late '70s and early '80s — claimed that quaaludes (sedative-hypnotic drugs) were 'used for sex' in the mansion. She alleged, '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.'
4. A couple of years later, Madison said that she once raised concerns about the quaaludes with Hefner himself. She shared on her podcast, 'I remember asking him once, 'Aren't you scared to give those quaaludes out? What if somebody overdosed?'' before noting that he allegedly replied, 'Yeah, that's a thought,' before brushing it off. 'He just didn't care and was so nonchalant,' she said.
5. Last year, Hefner's widow, Crystal, made heartbreaking claims that animals were abused at the mansion, which had an on-site zoo. 'Even with the window shut, I could hear their plaintive voices in my mind. 'Help, help,' they cawed and wailed — at least that's what it sounded like to me,' she wrote in her 2024 book, Only Say Good Things: Surviving Playboy and Finding Myself.
6. In the 2022 docuseries Secrets of Playboy, Theodore claimed that she once walked in on Hefner engaging in sexual activity with her dog. 'I walked in on him with my dog and I said, 'What are you doing?' I was shocked,' she recalled. '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.'
7. Madison said in 2023 that Hefner hated some of the girls wearing red lipstick because he wanted them to look 'young and fresh-faced.' She said, 'He wanted skimpy and fresh-faced and very young looking.'
8. The year prior, Madison said that age 28 'was the death mark' at the mansion — and the women were made to feel it. 'Every once in a while they would have a Playmate who was older than that, but it was pretty rare. And if somebody was 28 they would always note that,' she said. 'I wonder how much even that affected me, spending my early 20s hearing, 'You're kind of done by 28.''
9. Madison once famously claimed that Hefner kept a 'mountain' of revenge porn, which she alleged included pictures of women taken while they were 'wasted out of their minds.' As a result, she said she was 'afraid to leave' the mansion for so long in case the photos were leaked — though Crystal Hefner said she eventually found and destroyed the photos.
10. Both Madison and ex-Playmate Bridget Marquardt have alleged that Hefner could be 'abrasive' at times — notably after Madison got a haircut that he didn't like, which she said prompted him to call her 'old, hard, and cheap.'
11. In 2022, Madison recalled 'The Recruiter' (whom she said was another Playmate) ordering her to sleep with Hefner for the first time. She said, 'I was just another piece of meat for her to throw under him so she looks better.'
12. Marquadt also said of her experience sleeping with Hefner for the first time: 'The Recruiter came up to me and said, 'You're gonna go, right?' I was hoping that I could just observe and not participate… 'cause I was definitely not ready, and didn't want to.' Marquadt recalled telling The Recruiter that she wasn't 'ready to do this yet,' only to be told that she wouldn't be invited back if she didn't. She eventually slept with Hefner, which left her feeling 'icky,' disappointed, and embarrassed.
13. Madison said that Hefner pressured her to quit her part-time waitressing job because 'it made him jealous,' and that he gave the Playmates a weekly allowance of $1,000 each to encourage them not to get jobs. She said, 'I kept my waitressing job at just, like, one day a week because I wanted just to have something easy to go back to, should things not work out. He said it made him jealous, and he would appreciate it if I quit my job.'
14. That same year, Marquardt claimed that Hefner would keep track of the Playmates' allowances in a notebook that he kept locked away in a safe. 'The black book kept track of a few different things. It kept track of when somebody collected their allowance — he would mark it off so you couldn't ask for it twice,' she said.
15. Madison also said that sometimes Hefner would give some of the Playmates 'a report' that detailed 'how good of a job they were doing,' which he put together by keeping 'track of who he had sex with' and on what nights.
16. Madison once revealed that she and some of the other mansion residents were not on birth control. 'I don't know who was and wasn't on birth control — I wasn't — but I just don't think anyone ever felt for a second that they were gonna get pregnant from Hef,' she said, later adding: 'I just don't think any of us ever thought for a second that we were in danger of getting pregnant by him.'
17. Finally, Madison described the mansion as 'cult-like' in 2022, stating: '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.'