A new docuseries on A&E’s called “Secrets of Playboy” features interviews with past girlfriends, as well as staff and Hugh’s inner circle.
One of the photographers interviewed for the series alleges that the playboy founder had home videos of the Manson Family from before their murder spree in 1969.
In another interview, Miki Garcia head of promotions for Playmate from 73’ to 82’ described the atmosphere of the Playboy Mansion as “cult-like.” She said “he really did believe he owned these women. We had Playmates that overdosed. There were Playmates that committed suicide."
Holly Madison, one of Hugh’s most famous girlfriends was also interviewed as said “The reason I think the mansion was very cult-like looking back on it is because we were all kind of gaslit and expected to think of Hef as like this really good guy."
Director of docuseries, Alexandra Dean said that cult was a word that came up frequently from different people during the interviews. "At first I didn't know about the cult word, you know, I was a little skeptical. . . I put something in Episode 2 to kind of explain to you why I did take it so seriously and include it and that's the fascination Hef had with Charles Manson...it was very profound and multiple people told me about it."
Do all of these stories coming out about Playboy deter you way from supporting the Playboy now?