The glamorous image many people have is a far cry from the reality experienced by those who lived there.
Alongside the celebrity guests, there was a group of women who actually lived there full-time. These women were known as the Bunnies.
It showcased the Bunnies living together under one roof with Hefner’s wife and his many girlfriends. It seemed like a life of luxury on the surface.
The Playboy image was built on these ideas.
It was actually pretty ‘grubby’ and unappealing.
Izabella St. James, who once lived at the Los Angeles mansion, decided to share her experience in a tell-all memoir called Bunny Tales.
“We all did our best to decorate our rooms and make them homely, but the mattresses on our beds were disgusting – old, worn and stained.”
“He liked the girlfriends’ rooms to look very girly, all white carpet and pink walls,” St. James added, pointing out that Hefner had very particular tastes.
Things became significantly worse when Holly Madison moved in as Girlfriend No. 1 shortly after St. James arrived. Madison brought along her two dogs, which added to the problem.
St. James revealed that the dogs were not house-trained.
“Late at night, if any of us visited Hef’s bedroom, we’d almost always end up standing in dog mess,” she said.
The idea of glamour quickly fades when you picture that.
“Everything in the Mansion felt old and stale, and Archie the house dog would regularly relieve himself on the hallway curtains, adding a powerful whiff of urine to the general scent of decay.”
Another former model, Jenna Bentley, who also lived in the mansion for a year, shared her own insights into life under Hefner’s roof.
Bentley revealed that the women had a strict 9 pm curfew.
If anyone missed it, they were apparently expected to sleep in the garden as a punishment.
Given the state of the carpets inside, maybe sleeping in the garden was actually the cleaner option.
