Playboy Mansion secrets from Elvis Presley's room to Hugh Hefner's grim ritual

08 January 2024 , 20:00

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Playboy Mansion secrets from Elvis Presley's room to Hugh Hefner's grim ritual

Playboy: The Centrefolds That Changed the World lands on our TV screens this evening, with the Channel 5 documentary set to explore the darker side of the famous brand.

The programme will show viewers a less glamorous side of the magazine, looking at how founder Hugh Hefner's excesses spiralled out of control as the years passed and how - over time - the late media mogul came to be regarded by many in his orbit as a sinister character.

The in-depth documentary will report allegations of drug use, coercion, abuse and sexual assault in Hefner's empire, most of all at the Playboy Mansion itself, and this film includes first-hand testimony from those that were there at the time.

Ahead of Playboy: The Centrefolds That Changed the World airing later tonight, we take a look at some of the other stories to come out of the famous mansion - from Elvis Presley's 'secret room' to tales of hauntings and ghosts...

Ghosts

Hugh Hefner shared the mansion with many women ... and a few ghosts (WireImage)

It turns out that it wasn't only Hugh Hefner ambling through the halls of the Playboy Mansion. According to his former girlfriends Holly Madison and Bridget Marquardt, who lived in the mansion during the early 2000s, they came face-to-face with female apparitions and inexplicable phenomena like TVs flickering on all by themselves.

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"The mansion is a home that's very intriguing for so many reasons," Madison told Nylon. "People talk about it being haunted. There's all these weird urban legends like trafficking tunnels. It takes on a life of its own."

Since Hefner's death in 2017, more hidden truths about his notorious dwelling are coming to light - from scandalous celebrity visits to strange 'sex rituals'. Guests visiting the Playboy Mansion constructed in 1927 in Westwood, California, have reported seeing apparitions of scantily-clad women and an old man eerily reminiscent of its previous tenants.

Madison shared on her ghost-focused podcast, Ghost Magnet, that neighbours dubbed it the 'haunted house'. She even recounted seeing a "very contemporary looking" lady while exercising in the basement gym, who didn't acknowledge her presence at all. "She just was looking straight forward and walked toward where the weights were, which were around the corner from where I was standing. So I was like, okay weird." she said.

Madison decided to introduce herself, but when she went round the corner, the woman had vanished. She was facing the only door to the gym while working out and never saw that woman again. Hefner's ex-girlfriend, who lived in the mansion from 2001 to 2008, also mentioned a TV in the house that would turn on by itself.

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Ex-Playboy twins Karissa and Kristina Shannon last year revealed the grim reality of life with Hugh Hefner, including his unsettling bedtime routine. The pair lived in the Playboy mansion for two years after being recruited by Hefner following a glamour shoot.

The twins were flown from Florida to LA, moving in with Hefner and his girlfriends, including Kendra Wilkinson. They received $1,000 a week to star on the reality show Girls Next Door,which documented life in the $100 million mansion. They spoke out in January 2023 about the alleged abuse they suffered while living with Hefner.

Kristina said they were regularly given drugs as part of Hefner's bizarre bedtime routine, before being forced into group sex with the elderly man and other women. Karissa added that they were told the drugs - including weed and quaaludes - would help them feel more comfortable.

Karissa and Kristina with the late Playboy founder and his wife Crystal Harris in 2009 (WireImage)

"He pulled out silk pyjamas from Italy and we put them on. He pulled out this big pill like the type a horse would take. It was quaalude, which we found out he used all the time," Kristina said of their first experience in Hefner's bedroom. "He told us the drugs would help with our anxiety. We smoked some pot. We felt frozen at first but after a while the pill made us loose and fuzzy," revealed Karissa, confessing to being touched by him whilst under the influence.

"He kept saying, 'My babies, my babies,' and cradling us as we lay either side of him. He told us to call him 'Papa'," she carried on, labelling him "the devil" for his actions. Too ashamed to speak up, the twins stayed at the mansion, becoming part of nightly intimate encounters with Hefner and other women.

"Hef would take six or seven girls to his room around midnight. Hef would be at the centre of the bed on his back. He had this big mirror on the ceiling," Kristina shared. "Afterwards we were disgusted and would scrub our bodies using hot, hot water and soap until we were red," she added.

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In 2010, the twins left the mansion, claiming the home was filled with "cameras and listening devices everywhere". "We had a 9pm curfew and his butlers were told to write down what we ate every day," they added.

Elvis

Back in its glory days, famous stars like Warren Beatty, Jack Nicholson and James Caan were seeing coming and going from the mansion. It was even rumoured that secret tunnels leading to stars' homes were built, but this turned out to be an April Fools joke.

But one famous face left a lasting impression - the King of Rock 'n' Roll. During the 60s and 70s, Elvis Presley was a frequent guest at the mansion and one night, it's said he spent all evening partying before retreating into a room with eight eager Bunnies. What went on behind closed doors is still a secret, but Hefner was so chuffed he named the area 'The Elvis Room'.

Zoe Delaney