Holly Madison reflects on ‘disgusting’ Playboy Mansion experience and turning down ‘The Traitors’

Former Playboy model and reality TV star Holly Madison has opened up about the disturbing aspects of her relationship with Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, admitting she "hated" certain sexual encounters during her time at the Playboy Mansion.

Speaking on the In Your Dreams with Owen Thiele podcast, Madison joked about long-standing rumors that the mansion is haunted, but said the real horror was “what’s going to happen in the bedroom on night two.” Madison, who dated Hefner from age 22 while he was 75, said her experience was very different in private compared to group settings. “That was disgusting. I hated it. I made it very known I hated it,” she recalled.

Madison, who gained fame through the mid-2000s reality series The Girls Next Door, has been more vocal in recent years about the toxic environment she experienced. In the 2021 A&E docuseries Secrets of Playboy, she detailed verbal abuse and emotional manipulation, including Hefner screaming at her over a haircut and criticizing her appearance. “I felt like I was just in this cycle of gross things and I didn’t know what to do,” she previously said.

She also revealed on the podcast that she turned down an offer to join the first U.S. season of the reality competition series The Traitors. Madison said she initially thought producers wanted to label her a villain due to her memoir, The Vegas Diaries, which detailed her relationship with Hefner. “I’m not falling for that... I’m not going on your stupid show where I’m supposed to be a villain,” she said, though she now regrets the decision.