She’s not saying “only good things.”
Hugh Hefner’s ex-wife Crystal Hefner was impressed by the Playboy mansion at first but then began to see the cracks in the worn down estate.
“This was a beautiful English Tudor home — and my family is from England — on five acres in the middle of LA,” the model, 37, told People Wednesday.
“But over time, I saw that this place doesn’t really get cleaned that well and there’s mold. It just felt rundown and gross after a while.”
Crystal added, “Everything was moldy and dusty and it was just hoarder central in the mansion.”
The former Playmate — who was married to Playboy founder until his death at age 91 in 2017 — also shared that the Los Angeles property was like a “time capsule from the ’70s” because of its outdated decor.
“Like Hef had pushed pause at the height of his heyday and never unfrozen it,” she wrote in her memoir, “only Say Good Things: Surviving Playboy and Finding Myself,” according to People.
The mansion was built in 1927 and reportedly had sunken living rooms with velvet couches, shag rugs, glass chandeliers and wood-paneled walls.
The party house — which hosted a lot of Hollywood events — also had game rooms, which Crystal said she went into “a lot” but was “always afraid to touch too many things in there.”
“I have no idea what happens in there,” the author told People.
One of the other memorable parts of the mansion was its zoo, which featured exotic animals like peacocks and monkeys.
However, Crystal recalled the pets making harrowing noises at all hours that were a nuisance.
“Even with the window shut, I could hear their plaintive voices in my mind. ‘Help, help,’ they cawed and wailed,” she writes in her new book. “At least that’s what it sounded like to me.”
Crystal said that her time at the mansion was “breaking [her] down, one way or another,” noting that the property was allegedly also affecting her health. “The house was literally making me sick.”
The Playboy mansion was sold for $100 million to Daren Metropoulos of the investment firm Metropoulos & Co. in August 2016 before Hugh died.
The former editor-in-chief of Playboy magazine was able to live on the estate for $1 million a year in rent.
When he passed, Metropoulos announced that the home would undergo a massive renovation, including being reconnected with a neighboring property, creating a massive, 7.3-acre compound in Holmby Hills.
In 2018, it was announced the Playboy mansion would not be landmarked — as it was initially proposed — but instead would be preserved via a permanent protection covenant and could not be demolished.
