Holly Madison Says She ‘Didn’t Feel Protected’ Against Negativity by Hugh Hefner or Playboy

Holly Madison “definitely didn’t feel protected against negative stories” while in a relationship with Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, she exclusively tells In Touch. 

Though “there wasn’t even social media”at the time, “there was a lot of trash talking and bullying online like we see today with so many things,” the Girls Next Door alum, 43, says the late magazine mogul turned a blind eye to the hate that was directed at her, as well as his other girlfriends, including Bridget Marquardt and Kenda Wilkinson. 

“If somebody would come out, like if Hef had an ex-girlfriend that would come out and talk trash about me or anybody else who was there at the time, you know, he never stuck up for us or anything like that,” she tells In Touch, adding, “It was just kind of like collateral damage unfortunately.”

Though the “Girls Next Level” podcast host alleges that Hugh – who died in September 2017 at the age of 91 – failed to protect the women from negativity, Holly further tells In Touch that Bridget, 49, and Kendra, 37, “had it easier” in the Playboy mansion, noting that there were “a lot of ways” she lost freedoms while serving as Hugh’s main girlfriend from 2001 to 2008.

“I had to share a room with Hef. I had zero privacy, zero freedom,” the host and executive producer of ID’s Playboy Murders, which premieres on January 23, explains. “Not that they didn’t have their difficulties, they certainly did, but it would’ve been so much easier.”

She continues, “Bridget could have friends in her room — other women who lived there, other women who were Playmates — and have their little sleepover nights and have fun and go home and visit their families. Kendra had her things she was doing, and I just didn’t have any of that freedom, so it was a lot harder.”

The Oregon native also tells In Touch that the more time she spent with the controversial magazine publisher, she began to see a “darker side” of him, noting that there was a “double standard” when it came to his girlfriends – who were “expected to be monogamous with just him.”

Recalling that “a lot of women” who lived at the Playboy mansion at the time had “secret boyfriends on the side they would see during the day,” the Down the Rabbit Hole author explains that she remained committed to Hugh throughout their seven-year relationship.

“I never did have anybody on the side,” she says. “Bridget never had anybody on the side, but I think pretty much everybody else did.”

Death by Fame premieres on ID Monday, January 23, at 9 p.m. ET, followed by The Playboy Murders at 10 p.m. ET. Both series will stream the same day on Discovery+.