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Shanna Moakler Reflects on Experience With Hugh Hefner: ‘He Can’t Defend Himself’
Shanna Moakler reflected on her experience with Hugh Hefner after several former Playboy playmates have come forward with their negative experiences.
After several women with connections to Playboy came forward with claims that Hugh raped them in A&E’s 2022 docuseries Secrets of Playboy, Shanna, 49, told People that “wasn’t [her] experience.” However, she didn’t deny the allegations against Hugh and said she would “never take away from any woman’s story or experience.”
“If someone is saying that this is what they experienced, I’m going to honor them and listen to them and hear them,” she told the outlet in an interview published on Thursday, June 27.
Shanna also reflected on her time with Hugh, explaining that he approached her to be a girlfriend when they first met. “I was like, ‘You’re a little too old for me,’” the mother of three recalled, adding that she took a liking to Hugh and took part in a “rotating circus” of his girlfriends.
After noting she wasn’t aware of the allegations against Hugh during their time together, she said that women coming forward “need to talk about it, especially if it’s dealing with trauma.”
“The man is dead. He can’t defend himself,” she continued. “He can’t.”
After Hugh died at the age of 91 in 2017, many of his ex-girlfriends came forward with their negative experiences.
While appearing on The Tamron Hall Show in February, Hugh’s widow, Crystal Hefner, claimed that he dictated her appearance.
“I think he wanted me to just be seen and not speak, be helpless, be small … have bleach-blonde hair and stay skinny and have big, fake boobs,” Crystal, 38, said about her late husband, whom she was married to from 2012 until his passing in 2017. “That’s part of it.”
She then shared examples of how Hugh controlled her appearance, explaining that he would tap her on the head when he thought it was time for her to dye her hair. Crystal also said she gained weight in 2008 when she moved into the mansion, recalling that Hugh would point out her changing weight.
“So, I quickly learned, ‘OK, things aren’t really what they seem here,’” she said at the time. “I made myself small and just mirrored Hef, and just ended up liking what he liked.”
Additionally, Crystal claimed that she “never had a say” when it came to the size of her breast implants during her time at the Playboy Mansion.
“The doctor just put them in,” she said during a January episode of “The Skinny Confidential” podcast, adding that her late husband made the “judgment call.”
Crystal continued, “Looking at the photos back in the day, I look like a sex doll from China like it’s embarrassing … It was like props for me.”
Another woman from Hugh’s life that has spoken out against him is Holly Madison. In January 2023, she exclusively told In Touch that she didn’t feel protected by Hugh or Playboy when people spoke negatively about her in the media.
“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,” Holly, 44, said at the time. “It was just kind of like collateral damage unfortunately.”
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