Kristina and Karissa Shannon: From tooth-breaking fistfights to aborting Hugh Hefner's 'devil child'
Trigger Warning: This article contains accounts of sexual abuse
Karissa Shannon, a 2009 Playboy Playmate, has revealed that she aborted Hugh Hefner’s “devil child” when she was 19 years old. The late Playboy baron had reportedly forced her to have unprotected group sex, piled her with alcohol and even got her pregnant while in his 80s. The model said that she "pities" the fact that the baron died without facing the consequences of his actions.
Shannon regularly appeared on Hefner’s E! reality series 'The Girls Next Door' along with her twin sister, Kristina. She said that when she took a blood test before undergoing breast augmentation surgery in 2009, she discovered that Hef had impregnated her. Shannon told the Mirror, "It was like the devil was inside of me. I didn’t want anyone to know I was carrying an 83-year-old man’s child.”
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“I was disgusted with my body and felt like there was an alien inside my stomach,” Shannon said. “I wasn’t having sex with anyone else, so it only could have been his baby." “I just wanted to get rid of it as soon as possible. I didn’t want Hef to find out, and he never did," she added.
Playmates, employees and members of Hef’s harem have accused him of abuse and sexual misconduct in the new documentary 'Secrets of Playboy'. Hef allegedly repeatedly exploited unsuspecting women inside his Playboy Mansion. Shannon opened up on how she ultimately aborted the child with Kristina's help, escaping Hefner's eye. “I found a clinic in LA. I got Hef’s security to drop us at the mall, pretending we were going shopping, then called my friend to pick us up,” said Kristina. “We were able to keep it secret.”
Reportedly, Hef exploited them with the help of fellow 'Girl Next Door' Kendra Wilkinson, now 36. “On our 19th birthday, he took us to a club. He bought us alcohol even though the US age [minimum] is 21,” Kristina alleged. “When we got back [to the Playboy Mansion], Kendra was like, ‘Do you girls want to smoke some weed in Hef’s room?’ But when we got into his room, Kendra left. We got really nervous.”
Hef then allegedly offered them a “big pill" -- a tablet the twin claimed was a Quaalude. It was known in Hef's circle as a "leg spreader". Hef allegedly used the tablet to manipulate women into having nonconsensual sex. “He told us the drugs would help with our anxiety,” said Karissa. “We smoked some pot. We felt frozen at first but after a while the pill made us loose and fuzzy.”
Abuse ensued after the girls were forced to take the pills. “It was almost 5 a.m. when we got back to our room that first night,” said Karissa. “We agreed, ‘He is the devil. He has a black soul. He is going to hell.’ ”
Despite Kristina and Karissa having each other's back, however, the twins were once arrested in 2017 for brutally assaulting one another in their home after a night of drinking. During the brawl, Karissa ended up knocking out some of Kristina's teeth after hurling an ADT security monitor at her. While Karissa was booked with felony domestic violence, Kristina was merely charged with misdemeanor domestic violence. In 2008, the twins were charged with aggravated battery after allegedly fighting with two others at a house party. They were put on probation and required to pay restitution after pleading no conquest. In 2016, Kristina was arrested for DUI after driving drunk.
In 2017, Hef died of sepsis at age 91. The sisters, who reportedly suffered PTSD and depression as a result of the abuse, are planning to sue Playboy for emotional distress and trauma. “We were Playmates, employed, and everything happened at the mansion, so we want to go after them,” Kristina explained. “We are speaking out because we want people to know who he truly was and what was going on behind closed doors.”