'I Was Very Restricted': Crystal Hefner Was 'Home Before Dark Most Days' Due to Hugh Hefner's 'Controlling' Rules

On the Friday, December 1, episode of Crystal Hefner’s podcast, Beneath The Surface With Crystal Hefner, the host had a conversation about her life in the Playboy mansion with Hugh Hefner’s son Marston Hefner.

“I feel like I was very restricted,” she recalled of her time at the infamous estate. “I think a lot of it was very hard for me, because by the time your dad got older, he didn't want me out past 6:00 p.m., so I was home before dark most days.”

Crystal, 37, spent five years as one of Hugh's girlfriends before they tied the knot in 2012. The couple were together five years before the publisher died at age of 91 in 2017.

“It was hard and it did feel a little bit controlling, and I feel like it did take me a while to understand him, specifically his personality,” she added, however, she admitted she grew to appreciate it his lifestyle.

She then spoke to her stepson about meeting the patriarch for the first time in 2007 when she was just 21 and Hugh was 81.

“It was exciting. I lived in San Diego. I had never seen a celebrity in my life, and I got invited to go to a party and I submitted my photos and I honestly didn't think I was pretty enough to go,” she began. “I was like, they'll never pick me, but they did, and I went up [to the Playboy mansion] and I remember a swarm of people came from the house to an empty cabana.”

She remembered first seeing the Playboy founder, noting, “[My friend] was like, 'That's Hugh Hefner.' I saw everyone flocking to him and it was just sparkly and twinkly and he was very nice.”

“He was very magnetic and that's how I felt. I felt like I was in this magnetic pull,” she stated.

Despite Crystal’s marriage to the businessman, she has spoken out about the unfair treatment she received while in a relationship with Hugh.

The former Playboy Bunny opened up about how she struggled with her self-worth and she “she grew increasingly restless to understand who she truly was away from Playboy’s toxic culture,” in her upcoming memoir, Only Say Good Things: Surviving Playboy and Finding Myself.

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It is a “vulnerable and clear-eyed look at how her experience with Hefner catalyzed a transformative journey from valuing external validation over all else to finally recognizing her worth.”

“This candid and ultimately empowering memoir provides not only a fascinating look behind the scenes at a powerful cultural icon and brand, but also offers an equally powerful and counterintuitive voice and hard-won lessons about who and what determines our value,” the book’s description read.