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March 6, 2024 11 mins

Playboy Playmate Crystal Hefner On Life At The Playboy Mansion

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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Wake up with Robin and Kid.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Welcome Crystal, Thanks for joining us this morning.

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Thanks for having me. I'm happy to be here.

Speaker 3 (00:11):
Crystal. Your book is shocking. It's actually really shocking, like
page after page of like women being treated appallingly.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
Yeah, that's what happened for sure.

Speaker 3 (00:23):
And you lived it. I mean, let me read you
a little bit, Kip. This is just a random page.
I literally just opened it and thought, okay. It says
he carried a disposable camera, the kind that you'd get
at any drug store, and encouraged us to pose for him.
He wanted us to flash the camera, pull up our skirts,
spread our legs, show everything A lot of girls did.

(00:43):
And I watched these cameras filled up with the most
incriminating images, rolls and rolls of potential blackmail if he
ever wanted to use it in that way. He also
kept a little black book where he wrote down the
names of every single woman who went up to the bedroom.
And I'd recently discovered little spy holes on either side
of the big television at the foot of the bed,

(01:03):
where one might set up cameras. When I asked him
about them, he just shrugged, what.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
Are they there for?

Speaker 3 (01:09):
I asked, I used to do a lot of filming,
and he said proudly, VHS, I had hours of videos,
hundreds of sexy tapes. Did people know you were filming?
I could only imagine what and who were on those tapes.
It's my bedroom, my house, he said, Gee, like that.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
Made it okay? Wow?

Speaker 4 (01:30):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:31):
And the he we're talking about is Hugh Hevna.

Speaker 1 (01:35):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
So how old were you when you were first introduced
to this world?

Speaker 1 (01:40):
I was twenty one and half was eighty one.

Speaker 3 (01:43):
And why did you do this? Why did you want
to be a part of this?

Speaker 4 (01:48):
When I grew up, I was I lost a parent
at a young age.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
I was really insecure.

Speaker 4 (01:53):
We didn't have any money, and I never really felt
like I belonged anywhere. And I as a teenager, I
did see Playboy magazine and the women and I just thought, Wow,
these women look so beautiful and powerful, like they had
the world at their feet, and I want to be
disliked them.

Speaker 1 (02:06):
One day and you know, I thought that might might
be the.

Speaker 4 (02:09):
Answer, and I met hef and Playboy was meant to
be like a place of freedom, expression, all those things.
But once I became his girlfriend and later wife, I
felt anything butt free. I felt completely trapped there, and
I didn't have the tools then that I have now,
Like I didn't even know what boundaries were until a

(02:31):
few years ago. And you know, we learn a lot
now about mental health and narcissism. I didn't realize Heff
was a narcissist when I was there. I thought it
was just his personality.

Speaker 1 (02:39):
And you know, the things are very hard and this
was pre me too as well.

Speaker 4 (02:44):
And this is a time when he was praised so
highly by the media, where if I felt weird, I'm like, oh,
maybe it's just something wrong with me.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
Do you think there's there's any way that a world
like that could exist again today? Like you at that time,
it seems pretty unique. I can't imagine it ever being
something that could happen again, that that mansion that lost
all that man with, you know, the women that he had.

Speaker 4 (03:11):
Yeah, I think it was a social experiment in time,
and you know.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
It's done a lot of damage to a lot of women.

Speaker 4 (03:22):
I spoke to some women to see how they've been healing,
and a lot of them haven't healed, and some are
in rehab and they've been really hurt.

Speaker 1 (03:31):
So I do think It's something that will never be repeated.
It was pre me too. Have couldn't get away with
doing this stuff.

Speaker 3 (03:38):
Now your mum is in lots of photos and you said,
you know, you'd come from this space where you had
no money. What did she think about everything that was
going on?

Speaker 1 (03:47):
At first? She thought it was cool.

Speaker 4 (03:48):
She thought that, you know, she said, oh, I could
have been a playboy bunny.

Speaker 1 (03:53):
She grew up in England.

Speaker 4 (03:54):
And she thought it was cool. And I didn't really
tell her what was going on there. She would come
over and we would talk about the house and how
pretty it was and the real estate aspect of it
because she was a state agent. But I didn't really
tell her until recently when she read the book.

Speaker 1 (04:11):
What went on there? And I asked her, I'm like,
why did you let me go?

Speaker 2 (04:16):
Yeah? And given that you had the sixty year age gap,
did she think that you were sleeping together, that you
were sleeping with h I.

Speaker 1 (04:23):
Think she maybe assumed, but we never really talked about it.

Speaker 3 (04:26):
But you married him too, Why would you marry him?

Speaker 2 (04:31):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (04:31):
I mean that's a great question too.

Speaker 4 (04:32):
And you know, when I was young, I had a
hard childhood and I did have this great love and
he was my high school sweetheart and we were together
for so long and he was killed in the war
in the Middle East, and so I when he gave
me a ring, I did think, like, Okay, I've already
had this great love in my life and this man,

(04:53):
this older man, wants this good pr story at the
end of his life. So so why not, Like I'm here,
And if I said no, I would have to leave
tomorrow and I didn't have a plan for that, so
I went through with it.

Speaker 3 (05:06):
Do you know it's interesting because he proposed with a
little mermaid music box?

Speaker 1 (05:11):
Is that right? Yeah?

Speaker 4 (05:13):
Yeah, he gave me a little mermaid music box. And
it feels thinking back and like, it feels so childish.

Speaker 3 (05:18):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (05:19):
He really loved a damsel.

Speaker 4 (05:21):
He really loved just women that were helpless, and he
wanted women.

Speaker 1 (05:27):
To act young and be young. And it was that's rough.

Speaker 2 (05:33):
It's interesting that you said though, like it's like either
get married or get out of the house. It's not
really It's not really a great option, is it.

Speaker 1 (05:42):
Yeah. I definitely wasn't ready to leave right away.

Speaker 3 (05:45):
Do you know, Crystal, it's interesting on this International Women's Day.
You know, the one thing I would never want to
do at all his victim shame, because I think you're
like the extreme version of what can happen when women
feel control by a situation that they have no power in.
But there must be so many women listening now who

(06:06):
are in a lesser version of that. What would you
say to them? Knowing now that you've got out and
you can reflect back on all the things that happened
to you.

Speaker 4 (06:16):
Well, I didn't really know how this book would be received,
but I've had an outpouring of women writing to me
saying that the book helped them get out of abusive relationships.

Speaker 1 (06:25):
A lot of women that write me are still.

Speaker 4 (06:26):
In abusive relationships, saying they're being abused in some way.

Speaker 1 (06:31):
You know a lot of women are being financially abused.

Speaker 4 (06:34):
And I just feel like women need to take back
their own power and have respect for themselves. And you know,
it took me a while to find myself respect myself
to the point where if anyone treats me disrespectfully, I
just leave. And I think that's an important lesson to
know who you are and really love and respect yourself.

Speaker 2 (06:56):
Was there anything good that came out of it? Like
when you passed away at least as his wife. Did
you get some type of inheritance? Did you get something
from it?

Speaker 1 (07:05):
At the end, he gave.

Speaker 4 (07:07):
Us like one thousand dollars a week and that we
had to kind of beg for. In the beginning, he
would count the bills like one hundred two hundred, and
it felt awful. Once we got married, I'm like, Okay,
I'm at the mansion and I'm not a celebrity, but
by association people want to do things with me. So
I would start doing like social media collaborations. I learned
how to DJ, and I would just I got into

(07:29):
like cryptocurrency, and I bought my first house in secret,
so I started just like stashing money away. And I
remember having like millions before have passed away of my
own that I that I that I made. And I
told my mom, I'm like, I can't leave him, like
he needs me.

Speaker 1 (07:45):
And I was there until he died.

Speaker 4 (07:47):
And I don't know if it's Stockholm syndrome or what
it is, but but now I can't believe myself thinking back, what.

Speaker 3 (07:55):
Do you think about him now?

Speaker 1 (07:57):
I think that he was just as sad.

Speaker 4 (07:59):
I noticed this one he was alive, like he was
just this sad, dorky little boy that you know, just
created this empire to try and fill a void that
never got filled. You know, he would cry a lot
when he was older, and he was like.

Speaker 1 (08:12):
The Wizard of Oz.

Speaker 4 (08:13):
He's like the man behind the curtain, you like, pull
the curtain and it's just this little man that everyone
you know, plays on to be larger than life, but
but he's not. He was just this sad, lost, lonely
person and who hurt a lot of people.

Speaker 3 (08:27):
If you had your time over again, what would you
do differently?

Speaker 4 (08:31):
I probably, I mean I wouldn't have gone if I
have had the tools now.

Speaker 3 (08:35):
But it's interesting though, because it was you. You know,
we are all the sum total of our life experiences,
and you wouldn't be talking to us if that hadn't happened.

Speaker 1 (08:46):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4 (08:47):
I try and give myself grace and not be hard
on myself. And you know, I'm in the position now
to help others because I've been through it. So I
think it's I think that's good, and I think that's
the light at the end of the tunnel.

Speaker 2 (08:58):
Given that this book has been so revealing and you've
been so honest with it, why call it only say
good things when there's obviously some fairly negative things in
there about Half, Like why call it that?

Speaker 4 (09:10):
When Half was getting closer to the end of his life,
he put me on the board of his foundation and
he said, I wanted you. I want you to promise
me to that you'll only say good things about me
when I'm no longer here. So I don't know if
it was a threat or what, but he just wanted
me to only say good things about him, and I
promised him. I said, I will only say good things
about you after you're gone. And I keept that promise,

(09:30):
but the promise was killing me. And so now it's
time to tell the truth.

Speaker 3 (09:35):
How many women you said there were so many women?
Like how many have gone through the playboy ment? And
how many of them would have had that experience that
you had.

Speaker 4 (09:44):
I mean, I met thousands when I was there, so
I'm not you know, some didn't come up to the bedroom.

Speaker 1 (09:49):
Some did.

Speaker 4 (09:51):
It's just so so many different women, and I've started
being in contact with some of them, and they're all
going through their own hard things.

Speaker 3 (10:00):
Man, you seem sad? Is it still hot?

Speaker 4 (10:07):
I'm in a much better place now, Like now I
finally have freedom. I do things that I like to do.
You know, I'm financially like doing well and happy. You know,
I own property in Los Angeles and Hawaii, so I
get to spend a lot of time in nature.

Speaker 1 (10:24):
So things are. Things are good.

Speaker 2 (10:25):
Now nice and if you repot in it.

Speaker 4 (10:28):
I am finally dating somebody who is very caring, respectful
and kind, which I very much appreciate.

Speaker 2 (10:34):
What's the age difference.

Speaker 1 (10:39):
Lessening here?

Speaker 3 (10:42):
Just why do you keep the last name Crystal? Why
do you have Crystal Hefna on the book?

Speaker 4 (10:51):
You know, it did become my identity, and I'm hoping
I'm doing some good with it, you know, I do.

Speaker 1 (10:57):
I did some Google back.

Speaker 4 (10:59):
At Crystal Harris, which is my original name, and you know,
I've grown a lot since then. So I don't know
if I'm going to keep better change it, but I
just don't think it's the most important right now. And
I'm not someone who's like looking to be famous or anything,
so I just just moving forward.

Speaker 2 (11:18):
That's awesome. Well, thanks so much for your tom this morning.
It's great to hear that you're in a good place.
And yeah, it's great, thank you.

Speaker 1 (11:24):
Thank you, Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. Yeah,
good luck with the book. Thank you. White Up with
Robin and Kid
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