Playboy founder Hugh Hefner was a 'vampire' who manipulated and drugged dozens of young women into taking part in degrading orgies, while masquerading as a champion of sexual freedom, according to a shocking new documentary.
'Secrets of Playboy', a 10-part docuseries premiering on A&E on January 24, is set to lift the lid on the 'dark underbelly' of Playboy, which became a seedy playground for drug use, sexual abuse, and even bestiality.
The series delves into the hidden truths behind Playboy with exclusive interviews with insiders, including Hugh Hefner's ex-girlfriends Holly Madison and Sondra Theodore, as well as former 'Bunny Mother' PJ Masten.
Theodore, now 65, reveals how there was group sex at the mansion five nights a week, which 'broke me like you'd break a horse.'
Hefner would also host weekly 'Pig Nights' during which he would he would bring in a dozen 'ugly' prostitutes to have sex with his friends.
New A&E docuseries, Secrets of Playboy, lifts the lid on the 'dark underbelly' of the Playboy Mansion and founder Hugh Hefner
Hefner, who launched the first edition of Playboy in 1953, had fashioned himself as a champion of freedom of sexuality and freedom of speech in a repressive post-war era
The castle-like Playboy mansion and the Playboy clubs would eventually become seedy playground for drug use, sexual abuse, and even bestiality, according to the new docu-series
VIP members of the Playboy nightclubs could do as they pleased, including revered Soul Train host Don Cornelius who allegedly held two Playboy bunnies hostage and raped one of them, according to the docuseries.
Holly Madison, the Playboy bunny who dated Hefner for eight years, also tells how Hefner refused to use protection during sex and how the lifestyle at the house even led her to consider suicide.
The series also includes interviews with Linda Lovelace, the 1970s porn star who found fame with the film Deep Throat, who says she was treated like a 'piece of meat' and forced to perform oral sex on a German Shepherd while Hefner and his friends watched.
The documentary is a critical reexamination of the legacy of iconic Playboy publisher, who died in 2017 aged 91.
Hefner was just 27 years old when he launched the first edition of Playboy magazine in 1953.
Featuring Marilyn Monroe on the cover, the first issue sold more than 50,000 copies and spawned an empire which spanned decades.
By the 1970s Playboy was selling seven million copies a month and Hefner opened up dozens of Playboy clubs where members gained entry using a key which literally opened the front door.
The documentary is a critical reexamination of the legacy of iconic Playboy publisher, who died in 2017 aged 91
By the 1970s, Playboy had taken off and Hefner opened up dozens of Playboy clubs where members gained entry using a key. He is seen with an entourage of Playboy Bunnies in 1966
Former Playboy Bunny Mother PJ Masten speaks of the 'depravity' that took place at Playboy's venues, recalling how porn star Lisa Lovelace was once drugged and forced to perform oral sex on a dog
Hefner fashioned himself as a champion of freedom of sexuality and freedom of speech in a repressive post-war era.
But the backlash began in the 1970s with the feminist movement which decried his objectification of women.
In recent years Playboy has struggled to stay relevant - the magazine stopped printing physical copies in 2020 - and many former Playmates have spoken out against the culture in the wake of the MeToo movement.
'Secrets of Playboy' is arguably the most damning portrayal so far and has extensive interviews with many of Hefner's former close associates and Playboy Bunnies.
According to Miki Garcia, former director of Playmate promotions: 'It was cult-like. The women had been groomed and led to believe they were part of this family. He (Hefner) really did believe he owned these women.
'We had Playmates that overdosed, that committed suicide'.
One of the most disturbing accounts comes from Sondra Theodore, a former model and actress who dated Hefner in the late 1970s and 80s.
She described how his sexual demands turned nasty and admits he 'scared me at the end...you couldn't satisfy him. He wanted more and more and more.'
'The group sex was at least five nights a week. They had a protocol. He liked to direct and you didn't segue away from it because you could tell it irritated him,' she added.
Theodore said Hefner was a prolific drug user, sending her out to buy cocaine numerous times, and the sex 'broke me like you'd break a horse'.
The Playboy clubs were touted as a place where sophisticated men could be in the company of their peers while being served by beautiful women in bunny outfits
A group of Playboy Bunnies line up for inspection by Hugh Hefner in 1966 at the Playboy Mansion in Chicago
'It just got ugly, I felt like I was a ringmaster, I had to put on the same show on every night,' she said.
'It was the same script: "welcome to the family, we're embracing you." It was all a lie.
'I watched girl after girl show up, fresh faced, adorable and their beauty just washed away. We were nothing to him…
'...he was like a vampire. He sucked the life out of these girls for decades'.
Lisa Loving Barrett, Hefner's executive assistant during the late 1970s and 80s, said that Hefner had a stockpile of Quaaludes, the powerful sedative which Bill Cosby's accusers claimed he drugged them with.
Barrett said that at the Playboy mansion the drug was known as the 'leg spreaders' and that they were regarded as a 'necessary evil' because they made women do anything.
Hefner would have his own prescription, as would Barrett and others who worked at the mansion and Hefner would collect them all and keep them all in a drawer in his bedroom, ready to give to women who he brought there.
Barrett claimed that Hefner would take small amounts of the amphetamine Dexedrine every day to keep himself alert.
Cocaine was a 'big deal' in the house and there was a powder room off the great hall where underneath an ornate toilet paper holder there was a 'pile of cocaine'.
The drug was so widely available that one of Hefner's poodles became addicted to it and used to lick it off the floor, Theodore claims.
Mixed among the newly recorded interviews with Hefner's 'staff and inner circle' is never-before-seen footage from the Playboy mansion, as well as its respective properties across the globe
The drugs helped fuel the horrifying 'Pig Nights' which happened every Thursday, according to Stefan Tetenbaum, Hefner's valet between 1978 and 1981.
Hefner would instruct two pimps to bring half a dozen women each to the mansion from Sunset Strip, which at the time was notorious for prostitution.
Hefner thought the women were 'pigs' but ordered his VIP male friends not to call them that, the film claims.
A doctor would first examine the women for any diseases or infections before they could have sex with the guests.
Tetenbaum tells the documentary: 'Sometimes he had a special woman who would come up, she was called The Bleeder.
'She would use a very large syringe and draw blood from these different friends and a girl would come and perform fellatio or give them a hand job'.
The documentary claims that for some reason John Belushi, a regular guest at the Playboy mansion, loved this and it would 'turn him on'.
Hefner had always had multiple girlfriends but by the 2000s he was going out numerous times a week with seven blondes who he said were all dating him at the same time.
Among them was Holly Madison who became his 'special one', or main girlfriend, and moved into the Playboy mansion aged 21 in 2000.
On her first night out with Hefner and his other girlfriends he offered her a Quaalude and said they were known as 'thigh openers' in the 1970s.
She declined but ended up having sex with him and the other girls that night.
'It was all very mechanical and robotic and you'd follow the other women's lead. It was really gross to me how Hef didn't want to use protection,' Madison says in the film.
Madison explains that Hefner 'love bombed' her in the beginning but over time 'brainwashed' her.
Playboy Bunny Holly Madison became Hefner's 'special one', or main girlfriend, and moved into the Playboy mansion aged 21 in 2000
