Hugh Hefner's widow offers more explicit account of alleged coercion - USA Today
This story contains graphic descriptions that some readers may find disturbing.
Hugh Hefner's widow, Crystal Harris, is opening up about the alleged abuse she experienced with the Playboy founder.
Harris, who was married to Hefner for nearly five years until he died in 2017, has previously accused him of sexual, emotional, financial and physical abuse. In an interview with Page Six, published Saturday, Oct. 31, Harris said she "had to have sex with stranger I didn't even know."
"It was humiliating. It was embarrassing," she told the outlet. "He would have some just named, you know, Monday, Wednesday, and it would be a naked woman. It’s disgusting."
She also accused him of having "a sex book, a black book where he logged everybody he slept with."
Harris, previously known as Crystal Hefner, said her late husband "chose people he could easily manipulate," making her an easy target, as she "came from a broken home. I didn’t have a father."
USA TODAY has reached out to Hefner Capital for comment.
Hefner, a magazine magnate and businessman, built his brand on womanizing when he launched Playboy in the early 1950s. He wed Crystal, his third wife, in 2012.
In February, Harris, formerly known as Crystal Hefner, raised alarms that thousands of her late husband's personal scrapbooks were becoming public.
Harris filed regulatory complaints with the attorneys general of both California and Illinois over a foundation in her late husband's name that allegedly possesses scrapbooks containing intimate images of multiple women, including herself, according to a statement from her attorney, Gloria Allred, shared with USA TODAY on Feb. 17.
In the statement, Allred condemned the potential release of "approximately 3,000 personal scrapbooks containing thousands of nude images of women, as well as Hefner's diary containing highly personal information regarding his sexual exploits, including names of women he slept with, notes describing the sex acts they performed, and in some instances, even information tracking women's menstrual cycles."
The latest Harris interview comes after she publicly asked actor Jessica Biel to turn down a role as a fictional version of Hefner'swife in the upcoming film titled "Playmates."
In an Instagram direct message to the "Better Sister" actress, Harris pleaded that Biel not go through with the performance, writing, "Please reconsider playing Hugh Hefner's 'wife' if this film intends to romanticize him or the Playboy world."
"I was actually his wife," she wrote in the direct message, which Harris shared in a public Instagram post on Oct. 8. "Many other women have come forward with allegations of rape, coercion, drugging and exploitation as well. There are also deeply troubling concerns involving minors. I hope everyone involved in this film takes the time to listen to the women who lived it before helping Hollywood turn it back into nostalgia."
Variety and Deadline reported Biel's casting in the upcoming Searchlight Pictures movie on Oct. 6. Bill Pullman plays the magazine publisher, and the film will also star Lily-Rose Depp and child actress Indiana Elle, according to the outlets.
Following Biel's remarks, Hefner's second wife, Kimberley Conrad, shared a statement on Instagram defending her late ex-husband's character, citing their 21 years of marriage together. Conrad and Hefner were married from 1989 to 1998 and shared two sons, including Marston Hefner, 36, and Cooper Hefner, 35.
"We shared a lifetime of beautiful memories, raised 2 wonderful sons together, and had a deeply loving bond that remained strong until his passing on September 27th, 2017 and continues with me to this day," Kimberly wrote. "I often told him if you look up the word gentleman in the dictionary you would find his name and photograph. Hef was in every sense of the word, a true gentleman, kind, loving, generous, philanthropic, and a man of extraordinary character."
She continued: "Losing Hef was devastating, and his absence is still deeply felt. I had the privilege of knowing and loving the man behind the public image, and I will always treasure the life and memories we shared. I will always believe the world was a better place because he was in it. I am forever grateful and blessed."
