Hugh Hefner’s former wife has disclosed an aspect of the Playboy Mansion that many might find surprising and quite unpleasant.
Crystal Hefner shared her life with Hefner from 2012 to 2017, and she moved into the iconic residence in 2009 when they began their relationship.
In her recounting, Crystal described the mansion as plagued with mold and dust, contributing to health issues she experienced.
The expansive 21,987-square-foot estate, originally constructed in 1927, was acquired by Hefner in 1971 for the then-equivalent of $1.1 million, approximately $7,452,740 today.
The property boasted various amenities including a games room, screening room, wine cellar, sports courts, a swimming pool, waterfall, the famous grotto, and even a small zoo.
Despite its grandeur, the mansion did not impress everyone.
Reflecting on her time in the Playboy Mansion, Crystal told RadarOnline: “This was a beautiful English Tudor home – and my family is from England – on five acres in the middle of LA.
“But over time, I saw that this place doesn’t really get cleaned that well and there’s mould. It just felt rundown and gross after a while.
“The whole time the mansion was breaking me down, one way or another. Now it was breaking down my health. The house was literally making me sick.
“Everything was mouldy and dusty and it was just hoarder central in the mansion.”
Crystal was not alone in her criticisms of the mansion.
Izabella St. James, another of Hefner’s former partners, also expressed her discontent with the mansion’s state of disrepair.
“Everything in the mansion felt old and stale,” she documented in her memoir, Bunny Tales.
“And Archie the house dog would regularly relieve himself on the hallway curtains, adding a powerful whiff of urine to the general scent of decay.”
She further described: “Each bedroom had mismatched, random pieces of furniture. It was as if someone had gone to a charity shop and bought the basics for each room.
“The mattresses on our beds were disgusting – old, worn and stained. The sheets were past their best, too.”
Additionally, in the docuseries Secrets of a Playboy, former mansion valet Stefon Tetelbaum shared her experiences of having to clean up items in the mansion.
“I had to put on rubber gloves and pick up the dildos from the floor and put them in a special bucket,” she disclosed.
“The maids would take them downstairs, spray them with a steam cleaner to sterilize them and then put them in plastic bags. I would carry them back upstairs and put them back in the headboard.”
Some years after the publication of St. James’ memoir, an incident involving more than 100 visitors who fell ill after attending an event at the mansion led to an investigation by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. The inquiry traced the source of a respiratory illness outbreak to a hot tub contaminated with bacteria responsible for Legionnaires’ disease.