Holly Madison is getting candid about her time at the Playboy Mansion.
The model dated Hugh Hefner for several years and lived at the house until they split in 2008. Now Madison is opening up about what she describes as a difficult experience in an A&E docuseries, ''Secrets of Playboy,'' which is to air on Jan. 24, 2022.
In a clip from the show that was shared on Tuesday, Madison explains that problems began shortly after she moved into the house.
''I got to a point not too far into my time there — I think I was only, like, six months in — where I kind of broke under that pressure and being made to feel like I need to look exactly like everybody else,'' Madison said.
Playmates tend to have a distinct look and typically boast long, blond hair cascading down their shoulders. Not wanting to blend in, Madison said she considered a drastic change.
''My hair was really long, naturally, and I was just like, 'I'm going to go chop my hair off so I can at least look a little different,''' she recalled before alleging: ''I came back with short hair and he [Playboy founder Hefner] flipped out on me and he was screaming at me and said it made me look old, hard and cheap.''
A friend of Hefner's also recounted the incident in the clip, explaining that Hefner, who passed away in 2017, was ''very unhappy'' that Madison had cut her hair to a length above her shoulders. Playboy alum Bridget Marquardt added that Hefner could be ''pretty abrasive in the way he said things to Holly.''
''She came down with red lipstick one time and he flipped out, said he hated red lipstick on girls [and that she] needed to take it off right away even though other people could wear red lipstick and it didn't seem to bother him,'' Marquardt recalled. ''It was very frustrating to live with every day — all the drama that was going on, and the tensions.''
Marquardt added that she could see Madison was starting to become depressed, and that ''her demeanor was starting to change.''
The situation did not seem to improve for Madison.
''I remember there were times, probably within the first couple years I lived there [at the Playboy Mansion] when I felt like I was just in the cycle of gross things, and I didn't know what to do,'' she explained.
In another clip from the show, Madison describes getting into the Playboy world as ''a dangerous choice.'' Playboy Mansion West resident Jennifer Saginor also spoke about her time living in the home.
''He didn't want people to know what was really going on,'' she said of Hefner, later adding, ''The people who were really there, they're the ones who know the real truth.''
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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