Hefner’s widow not in his will
FOUNDER OF PLAYBOY DIES AT 91 AND LEAVES THIRD WIFE 60 YEARS HIS JUNIOR
Hugh Hefner, the silk pajama-wearing founder of the Playboy empire who helped escort nudity into the American mainstream, died on Wednesday, the company announced. He was 91 years old.
Hefner, father of the trailblazing brand that encouraged a loosening of sexual strictures, died of natural causes in his Los Angeles home – the famed Playboy Mansion – according to a statement from Playboy Enterprises.
The playboy outlived the sexual revolution he fought for and some of the famous buxom pin-ups who graced his groundbreaking magazine’s centrefold.
He is survived by his third wife, Crystal Harris, 31, whom he married in 2012. Sources claimed Harris won’t inherit a cent, because of an “ironclad” prenuptial she signed.
“My father lived an exceptional and impactful life as a media and cultural pioneer and a leading voice behind some of the most significant social and cultural movements of our time in advocating free speech, civil rights and sexual freedom,” his son Cooper Hefner, Playboy Enterprise’s chief creative officer, said.
Playboy shattered taboos in the ’50s with bare-breasted pictures in the mass-market magazine whose inaugural centrefold featured a nude Marilyn Monroe.
Born in Chicago on April 9, 1926, to conservative Protestant parents, Hefner married classmate Mildred Williams in 1949, a union that would last 10 years. They had two children, Christie and David.
After being struck by fears that he would end up living his parents’ zipped-up lifestyle, Hefner – who had worked in jobs ranging from assistant personnel manager to copywriter at Esquire magazine – started his magazine in 1953.
The magazine, recognisable for its voluptuous covergirls and rabbit logo, became a sensation.
Beyond the glossy itself the Playboy brand spawned a heady business empire that included a television series as well as the notorious Playboy Clubs, the first of which opened in Chicago in 1960.
The clubs’ scantily clad waitresses – known as Bunnies – sported bunny ears and strapless corset teddies, with fluffy cottontails pinned to their derrieres.
Though he could not cite a definitive number, he assured American magazine Esquire in 2013 he was “sure” he had slept with “over a thousand” women.
In 1989 Hefner wed Kimberley Conrad – the 1989 Playmate of the Year, then 27 – and had two more children, Marston and Cooper. The couple divorced in 2010. – AFP