While the Playboy Mansion was iconic in its heyday for luxurious parties and as a celebrity hangout, Crystal Hefner revealed that by the time she married the magazine’s late publisher Hugh Hefner, it left a lot to be desired. Crystal, 37, revealed that by the time that she moved in, the Playboy Mansion had begun to feel “rundown” in a new interview with People, published on Wednesday, January 24.
Crystal revealed that the iconic mansion had felt very outdated, like a “time capsule from the ’70s” when she first experienced the mansion as a 21-year-old. “Like Hef had pushed pause at the height of his heyday and never unfrozen it,” she told the outlet.
Besides being dated, Crystal revealed that the Playboy Mansion wasn’t exactly hygienic either. She even revealed that after contracting Lyme disease in 2016, she admitted that her bloodwork also showed that she had possibly been exposed to toxic mold. “Now it was breaking down my health. The house was literally making me sick,” she said. “Everything was moldy and dusty and it was just hoarder central in the mansion.”
Crystal also opened up about the regular noises from the zoo of exotic pets, and being scared to touch anything in “game rooms.” The model also revealed that she was unsure if she was ever really “happy,” during her time in the mansion. “Over time, I saw that this place doesn’t really get cleaned that well and there’s mold. It just felt rundown and gross after a while,” she said.
Crystal has been opening up about her experiences at Playboy and with her late husband in her new memoir Only Say Good Things, which was released on Tuesday, January 23. In another recent interview, the former model also revealed that she also wasn’t impressed by Hugh’s sexual abilities. “Like Hef was just going through the motions of something that had once been fun and sexy,” she said People. “It was clear to me Hef had never taken a moment in his entire life to figure out how to please someone else.”