If Crystal Hefner could change one thing about her marriage to Hugh Hefner, it would be that it ever happened.
The “After the Mansion” podcast host, 40, exclusively told Page Six that she asks herself daily why she ever exchanged vows with the Playboy mogul, who died at 91 in September 2017.
“If I could go back, I absolutely wouldn’t have [married Hugh],” Crystal — who tied the knot with the Playboy mogul in 2012 — said. “I came from a broken home. I didn’t have a father. And I know now that Hef chose people he could easily manipulate, like that was it.”
Crystal first met the publisher in 2008 while attending a Halloween party at the Playboy Mansion. After connecting through private conversations, she moved into the notable Los Angeles estate and became one of his girlfriends.
She was named Playboy’s “Playmate of the Month” for the December 2009 issue. Three years later, she became Mrs. Hugh Hefner.
Crystal claimed her late husband purposely sought partners who weren’t as smart as him.
“Hef allegedly had a high IQ,” Crystal continued. “I always thought, why didn’t he want somebody that was at his level intellectually?”
“And it’s because those people are harder to control. So he chose the women that came from broken homes and broken backgrounds.”
Crystal is now opening up on her experience in the Playboy world, claiming she witnessed her late husband force women into horrific sex acts, including incest.
“There were times that were really uncomfortable for me in the bedroom,” Crystal said on the “Lisa Guerrero Unleashed” podcast. “In the bedroom things would happen that ended up just not being OK.”
She accused Hugh of trying to shove twins Kristina and Karissa Shannon’s heads into each other’s privates to “get them to engage with each other sexually.”
In that same episode, Crystal referred to former “Saturday Night Live” star Jon Lovitz as the mansion’s “No. 1 customer.”
“He would be up there all the time,” Crystal said of the comedian. “His eyes would go front to back [looking at] all the women that walked through the door at the party.” Lovitz, 69, later brushed off and mocked Crystal’s comments.
On her own platform, Crystal claimed acting legend Jack Nicholson visited the mansion so often, it was nicknamed his personal “drive-thru.”
“We also need people to know how powerful this man was when he was alive, that the media wanted this man in their pocket and so they didn’t really put out anything negative about Hef,” Hefner told Page Six.
“He was misogynistic, he was narcissistic, he was a pornographer that hurt the world,” she continued.
Crystal said Hugh “surrounded himself by like-minded men” like Bill Cosby and Donald Trump, claiming the mansion was often frequented by “really horrific, horrible” A-listers.
Crystal went back and forth on whether she would use the famous surname “to do good for the world or for women,” but chose to sever her ties from Hugh completely.
She legally changed her name back to Crystal Harris in late 2025, and married marine biologist James Ward.
If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this story, call the Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-330-0226.
The post Crystal Hefner reveals biggest regret from marriage to ‘manipulative’ Hugh after incest, rape claims appeared first on Page Six.
