Holly Madison Says Life in the Playboy Mansion Was Like a Cult
Holly Madison is getting real about her time in the Playboy mansion. The Oregon native dated mogul Hugh Hefner from 2001 to 2008 and lived in the sprawling estate located near Beverly Hills, Calif. during that time, which she doesn't seem to look back on with much fondness.
The Girls Next Door alum will spill the tea on life inside the gated compound in the new A&E docuseries Secrets of Playboy. In a teaser for the new show, Madison describes life in the mansion as "cult-like."
"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," the 42-year-old dishes in the teaser clip. "And you started to feel like, 'Oh, he's not what they say in the media, he's just a nice man.'"
Madison notes Hefner had strict rules for the ladies once they entered the world of Playboy.
"It was so easy to get isolated from the outside world there," she explains. "You had a 9 o'clock curfew. You were encouraged to not have friends over. You weren't really allowed to leave unless it was like a family holiday."
Watch the clip below:
The Holly's World star adds that she kept her one-day-a-week waitressing gig in case "things [didn't] work out" with Hefner, but he eventually put a stop to that: "He said it made him jealous, and he would appreciate it if I quit my job. So instead, we were given $1,000 a week as an allowance."
Madison left the mansion in 2008 and previously spoke about her life with the Playboy founder in her 2015 memoir, Down the Rabbit Hole: Curious Adventures and Cautionary Tales of a Former Playboy Bunny.
Following her split from Hefner, Madison married Pasquale Rotella in 2013. They broke up in 2019. The former flames share two children: Rainbow Aurora and Forest Leonardo.
The upcoming docuseries also features interviews with The Telling actress' former costar Bridget Marquardt, along with other ex-Playmates and former staff members who worked with Hefner until his passing in September 2017.
Secrets of Playboy premieres Jan. 24 at 9 PM on A&E.