Holly Madison recalls ‘weird scene’ inside Hugh Hefner’s Playboy Mansion

Holly Madison discussed life at Hugh Hefner’s Playboy Mansion and changes after 'Girls Next Door' began filming

Holly Madison has spoken further about her experiences living at the Playboy Mansion during her relationship with Hugh Hefner, before filming began on Girls Next Door.

The former Playboy model and reality television personality discussed her time at the mansion during an appearance on Kristin Cavallari’s Let’s Be Honest podcast.

Madison, who dated Hefner for seven years before leaving in 2008, reflected on social routines at the mansion before the launch of the E! reality series.

“It was a really weird scene. Nobody liked it, and everybody just tried to get it done as fast as possible,” Madison said while discussing group activities and nights out during that period.

Girls Next Door aired for six seasons between 2005 and 2010 and followed Madison alongside fellow Playboy models Kendra Wilkinson and Bridget Marquardt as they lived at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles.

According to Madison, production of the series changed many of the routines associated with life at the mansion.

“Not that we wouldn't ever go out, if it was like a special occasion, but we stopped those regular club nights, where we're going out every Wednesday and Friday, because we were so busy with the show,” she explained.

Madison also suggested that the success of the television series gave Hefner renewed public attention.

She said the show provided him with “relevance” and an “ego boost”, which she claimed reduced the frequency of what she described as “compulsive sex nights”.

The comments follow Madison’s previous statements in the 2022 A&E docuseries Secrets of Playboy, where she described aspects of living at the mansion as “traumatic” and compared the environment to a cult.

Reflecting on her relationship at the time, Madison stated in the series, “It was very Stockholm syndrome.”

Following the release of the documentary, Hefner’s son Cooper Hefner defended his father publicly.