If Crystal Hefner could change one thing about her marriage to Hugh Hefner, it would be this.
The “After the Mansion” podcast host, 40, exclusively told Page Six that she asks herself daily why she ever exchanged vows with the Playboy mogul, who died in September 2017 at the age of 91.
“If I could go back, I wouldn’t go at all [married Hugh]said Crystal, who tied the knot with the Playboy mogul in 2012. I come from a broken home. I didn’t have a father. And now I know that Hef has chosen people he can easily manipulate, as it were.
Crystal first met the publisher in 2008 while attending a Halloween party at the Playboy Mansion. After connecting through private conversations, she moved into the famous Los Angeles estate and became one of his girlfriends.
She was named Playboy’s “Playmate of the Month” for its December 2009 issue. Three years later, she became Mrs. Hugh Hefner.
Crystal claimed that her late husband deliberately looked for partners who were not as smart as him.
Crystal added, “Hef reportedly had a high IQ.” “I always wondered, why didn’t he want someone who was at his level intellectually?”
“And that’s because those people are harder to control. So they chose women who came from broken homes and broken backgrounds.”
Crystal is now opening up about her experience in the world of Playboy and claiming that she witnessed her late husband forcing women to perform horrific sexual acts, including incest.
“There were times when it was really uncomfortable for me in the bedroom,” Crystal said. On the “Lisa Guerrero Unleashed” Podcast. “There will be things in the bedroom that ultimately won’t go well.”
He accused Hugh of trying to force the heads of twins Christina and Karissa Shannon into each other’s genitals so they could “have sex with each other.”
In the same episode, Crystal referred to former “Saturday Night Live” star Jon Lovitz as the mansion’s “No. 1 client”.
“He would be there all the time,” Crystal said of the comedian. “His eyes would move from front to back [looking at] All the women who walked through the door at the party.” Lovitz, 69, later refuted this and mocked Crystal’s comments.
On her own forum, Crystal claimed that acting legend Jack Nicholson visited the mansion so often, it was nicknamed his personal “drive-thru”.
“We also need people to know that despite how powerful this guy was when he was alive, the media wanted to have this guy in their pocket and so they didn’t really put out anything negative about Hef,” Hefner told Page Six.
“He was a misogynist, he was narcissistic, he was a pornographer who hurt the world,” she added.
Crystal said Hugh described himself as “surrounded by like-minded people” such as Bill Cosby and Donald Trump, claiming the mansion was frequented by “really horrible, horrible” A-listers.
Crystal repeatedly debated whether she would use the famous nickname “to do good for the world or for women,” but she decided to sever her ties to Hugh entirely.
She legally changed her name back to Crystal Harris in late 2025 and married marine biologist James Ward.
If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call the sexual assault hotline 1-800-330-0226.