Holly Madison slammed for alleging Hugh Hefner mentally and verbally abused her
Former Playboy bunny Holly Madison has opened up about the abuse she dealt with during her time at Hugh Hefner's sex-fuelled den in a new TV series. Titled 'Secrets of Playboy' that will air on A&E Network in January, the show will bring to the fore the sexual assaults, drug abuse, prostitution, suicide, and murder, and other dark secrets which remained barricaded by Hefner's glamorous empire. Madison was one of his girlfriends who lived at the mansion between the period of 2001 to 2008. Madison's claims are supported by Hefner's former assistant Lisa Loving Barrett and his ex Sondra Theodore.
Hefner died of sepsis in 2017, aged 91. It was reported that decades before his passing, he dumped a casket full of personal sex tapes in the Pacific ocean ensuring no one laid their hands on them. The Sun, citing a source, reported that Hefner had his head of secretary Joe Piastro place "a batch of tapes, shot on 8 mm and cinefilm, which were filmed during some of the orgies he enjoyed in the 70s' into a specially-made chest that was lined with cement. He tossed the entire thing into the ocean because as Playboy Mansion parties got wilder in the late 1990s, he worried that his practice of documenting his every move might become a problem."
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Holly Madison developed depression due to Hugh Hefner's behavior towards her
In the promo of the upcoming series, Madison describes her time at the mansion saying, “I remember there were times, probably within the first couple of years that I lived there, where I felt like I was in this cycle of gross things and I didn’t know what to do" She further added that after years of living with fellow blonde-haired full-bodied girls left her with an urge to break out of the mould. “I got to a point where I kind of broke under that pressure and being made to feel like I needed to look exactly like everybody else." As a result, Madison opted for a shorter hairdo resulting in Hefner being infuriated at her for doing so.
“I came back with short hair and he flipped out on me,” she claimed, adding, "He was screaming at me and said it made me look old, hard, and cheap.” Backing her claims is former Playmate and Madison's co-star Bridget Marquardt from E!'s 'Girls Next Door'. “Hef would be pretty abrasive in the way he said things to Holly," she said before revealing the lipstick incident. “She came down with red lipstick one time and he flipped out, said he hated red lipstick on girls and [told her] that she needed to take it off right away,” Marquardt said while also revealing that Hefner had no issues with the other girls sporting a red lip color.
Hefner's friend Jonathan Baker too confirmed the mogul's annoyance at Madison over her hair. “I remember when she cut her hair. He was very unhappy about it. Yup, his world." Marquardt continued, “It was very frustrating to live with every day. All of the drama that was going on and the tension. I could definitely see that [Madison] was getting depressed and sad and her demeanor was starting to change." While Hefner maintained he didn't use any hard drugs at the mansion, his ex Sondra Theodore claims it was a lie. If you're wondering that it's Viagra, it's not.
Theodore said in the promo, “Quaaludes, down the line, were used for sex. Everything felt good to touch, everything felt soft and soft focus, and it was lovely. Usually, you just took a half. Now, if you took two, you would pass out." She continued, “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.” Hefner's secretary Lisa Loving Barrett confirmed this claim saying, “We would have prescriptions in some of our names. There were prescriptions in Sondra’s name, in Hef’s name and in my name and Mary’s name … We kept a desk calendar that would say ‘Lisa’s Q’ or ‘Hef’s Q’ or ‘Sandra’s Q.’ ”
Madison is being trolled on the Internet after the promo release. "And yet you happily did what the guy asked when he was footing the bill. You are now what you were then but getting paid less for it," read a tweet. "Are you kidding me…????? So why did you live there for many many many years @hollymadison…????" asked another user. "And? @hollymadison you CHOSE to be there. You made lots of money and you got attention. Now...you want us to feel sorry for you? Cry me a river," another tweet read. "He used them as toys and they used him for his money. No victims here. If they chose to stay, shame on them," a comment recorded by Fox News read. "No sympathy here. Whoever advised Holly to paint herself as a "victim" should be fired as quickly as possible. Holly could have moved out at anytime but stayed for the money and some level of fame. There are REAL victims out there, Holly. You are not one of them," wrote another.