Holly SURVIVING PLAYBOY MANSION
Who better to host The Playboy Murders, a true-crime docuseries that exposes the dark secrets of the Playboy world, than Holly Madison? Here, the former Playmate, 44, tells Life & Style what it was really like living in the late Hugh Hefner’s famed Playboy Mansion in LA.
DO YOU REMEMBER WHAT IT WAS LIKE GOING TO YOUR FIRST PLAYBOY PARTY?
I was a college student, I worked at Hooters in Santa Monica, and all the women that worked there wanted to go to these parties, and only a few of them were lucky enough to get invited. So, when my roommate and I finally got invited, it felt like a dream come true.
DID YOU HAVE TO ABIDE BY ANY SPECIFIC RULES WHILE LIVING UNDER HEF’S ROOF IN LA?
You were always expected to look a certain way, maintain your hair color, behave a certain way. It just kind of overall gave me the feeling of walking on eggshells at all times. I wore red lipstick and found out the hard way that Hef didn’t like it.
IS IT TRUE THAT THE BATHROOM PIPES HAD TO BE REPLACED FROM GIRLS THROWING UP A LOT?
On my podcast, [Girls Next Level with Bridget Marquardt], we’ve talked to staff and other people who were there at the time that this allegedly happened, and I guess it was a thing. There were people who struggled with really bad eating disorders while I was there, and it was always a sad thing to see.
HAS IT BEEN A RELIEF, HAVING THE TRUTH ABOUT THE PLAYBOY MANSION COME OUT?
Definitely. For so long, I felt like I was kind of expected to uphold a lie, and you could just only do that for so long before you start to crumble.