Hugh Hefner's Widow Crystal, 37, Claims She Was Never 'in Love' With Playboy Founder Husband
Hugh Hefner’s widow, Crystal Hefner, recently claimed that she was never “in love” with the famous Playboy founder before his death seven years ago, RadarOnline.com has learned.
In a sudden development to come after Hugh passed away in September 2017 at 91 years old, Crystal, 37, spoke out about the couple’s marriage and her life as a Playboy bunny living at the Playboy mansion.
According to Crystal in her new tell-all book, Only Say Good Things: Surviving Playboy and Finding Myself, she “loved” Hugh but was never “in love” with the Playboy founder despite essentially serving as his caregiver in the years before his death.
She also revealed that there was a “really big power imbalance” in the couple’s relationship and that her life with Hugh was not a “world of success and fantasy” like it “seemed.”
"I realized I was dealing with a really big power imbalance,” Crystal told PEOPLE during an interview about her new book this week.
“It seemed like a world of success and fantasy, but everyone's having to sleep with an 80-year-old,” she added. “There's a price. Everything has a price."
Crystal also revealed that the infamous Playboy Mansion where she lived alongside Hugh first in 2008 and again following their marriage in 2012 was actually “falling apart.”
“This place doesn't really get cleaned that well and there's mold, and it just felt just kind of run down and gross after a while,” she said. “Too, too many parties. It was worn out.”
"I feel like I was constantly crying for everything and everybody there," Crystal added. "All those animals were so depressed and sad-looking. It was all an illusion. I don't even know if I was happy, to be honest."
As RadarOnline.com previously reported, Hugh and Crystal married in December 2012.
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Crystal was the Playboy publisher’s third and final wife. They were married for almost five years until Hugh’s death on September 27, 2017.
“At the time I thought I was on top," Crystal told PEOPLE regarding the time after she first met Hugh and moved into the Playboy Mansion in October 2008.
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"I thought, wow, if I just like everything that he likes and do all the things that he wants me to do, then I'm the favorite,” she continued. “And I was, but I just lost myself in the process.”
According to Crystal, the Playboy founder was very “controlling” about her looks and other "weird, silly, stupid things.”
“Our nail polish couldn’t be anything but some neutral color, no French manicure,” she explained. “Don’t have a belly button ring because that’s trashy."
Crystal also claimed that Hugh forced her to rebleach her hair every time her natural brown hair started to grow out.
“So I’d have to go bleach it and it would burn my scalp and I’d have blisters,” she recounted. “But for some reason I thought this was all normal and that’s what it meant to be seen as beautiful in Hef’s eyes."
As RadarOnline.com reported, Crystal previously opened up about Hugh’s alleged opioid addiction in the years leading up to his death at 91.