Crystal Hefner is speaking out about her controversial marriage to the late Hugh Hefner — including the rare side effects from his alleged Viagra use.
Crystal, 37 — who was married to the late Playboy founder from 2012 until his death at 91 in 2017 — met Hef at a party at the Playboy mansion when she was 21. He was 60 years her senior.
After the two began dating, Crystal engaged in Hef’s notorious group sex sessions, alleging that he took so much Viagra in order to keep up over the years that he suffered from hearing loss in one of his ears.
‘It was embarrassing. I don’t know the most people there’d been in our bedroom at one time but – a lot. Pretty bad. We were like, ‘Oh, now it’s your turn,’” Crystal recalled to the Daily Mail in an article published on Monday, August 28. “Nobody really wanted to be there but I think in Hef’s mind, he still thought he was in his 40s, and those nights, the people, the mansion, solidified that idea. He felt, ‘I’ve still got it.’”
As for Hef’s take on his alleged hearing loss, she told the outlet: “Hef always said he’d rather be deaf and still able to have sex. Weird. ” (Pfizer, the company that manufactures the drug, cites “sudden hearing decrease or hearing loss” as a “rarely reported” but potential side effect, noting, “Some people may also have ringing in their ears or dizziness.”)
Crystal will detail more harrowing details of her time with Hef in her upcoming memoir, Only Say Good Things: Surviving Playboy and Finding Myself, titled after Hef’s instructions to her after his death: “Only say good things.”
“I was so Team Hef and I still am to a certain degree,’” Crystal told the outlet. But she’s also grown, exclusively telling Us Weekly earlier this month that she is “deprogramming” herself from the mansion mindset through therapy.
“Your value is what you look like [at the Playboy Mansion]. I was rewarded for being codependent and feeling like I was nothing without Hef and had no value of my own. You’re rewarded for not having a life of your own outside of the person,” she shared with Us. “I’ve learned a lot about self-worth, self-love, advocating for yourself and healthy relationships.”
In fact, the “hardest part” of her relationship with her late husband was facing the harsh judgment from outsiders — criticism that she believes was warranted.
“If that was my daughter now – it wouldn’t happen,” Crystal told the Daily Mail. “All I can say is that if you come from a happy, perfect, loving childhood, you don’t usually end up with someone who was already 60 years old by the time you are born.”
Only Say Good Things: Surviving Playboy and Finding Myself is set to be released on January 23, 2024.
