
Hugh Hefner’s widow offers more explicit account of alleged coercion
October 31, 2026, 5:03 p.m. ET
This story contains graphic descriptions that some readers may find disturbing.
Hugh Hefner’s widow Crystal Harris is speaking out about the alleged abuse she suffered with the Playboy founder.
Harris, who was married to Hefner for nearly five years until his death in 2017, has previously accused him of sexual, emotional, financial and physical abuse. In an interview with Page Six, published Saturday, October 31, Harris said she “had to have sex with a stranger that I didn’t even know.”
“It was humiliating. It was embarrassing,” she told the outlet. “He would just name one, you know, Monday, Wednesday, and it would be a naked woman. It’s disgusting.”
She also accused him of having “a sex book, a black book in which he recorded everyone he slept with.”
Harris, formerly known as Crystal Hefner, said her late husband “chose people he could easily manipulate,” making her an easy target because she “came from a broken home. I didn’t have a father.”
USA TODAY has reached out to Hefner Capital for comment.

Hugh Hefner’s widow says alleged abuse she faced was ‘humiliating’
Hefner, a magazine mogul and businessman, built his brand on women when he launched Playboy in the early 1950s. He married Crystal, his third wife, in 2012.
In February, Harris, formerly known as Crystal Hefner, raised the alarm that thousands of her late husband’s personal albums were becoming public.
Harris has filed regulatory complaints with the California and Illinois attorneys general regarding a foundation in her late husband’s name that allegedly owns albums containing intimate images of several women, including herself, according to a statement from her attorney, Gloria Allred, shared with USA TODAY on Feb. 17.
In the statement, Allred condemned the potential release of “approximately 3,000 personal albums containing thousands of nude images of women, as well as Hefner’s diary containing highly personal information regarding his sexual exploits, including the names of the women he slept with, notes describing the sexual acts they performed, and in some cases even information about the women’s menstrual cycles.”

Crystal Harris calls out Jessica Biel about the Playboy movie
Harris’ latest interview comes after she publicly asked actress Jessica Biel to turn down a role as a fictionalized version of Hefner’s wife in the upcoming film titled “Playmates.”
In an Instagram direct message to the “Better Sister” actress, Harris pleaded for Biel not to continue with the performance, writing, “Please reconsider playing Hugh Hefner’s ‘wife’ if this movie intends to romanticize him or the Playboy world.”
“I was actually his wife,” she wrote in the direct message, which Harris shared in a public Instagram post on October 8. “Many other women have also come forward with allegations of rape, coercion, drugging and exploitation. There are also deeply troubling concerns involving minors. I hope everyone involved in this film takes the time to listen to the women who lived through it before helping Hollywood turn it into nostalgia.”

Variety and Deadline announced Biel’s casting in the upcoming Searchlight Pictures film on October 6. Bill Pullman plays the magazine’s editor, and the film will also star Lily-Rose Depp and young actress Indiana Elle, according to media reports.
Following Biel’s remarks, Hefner’s second wife, Kimberley Conrad, shared a statement on Instagram defending her late ex-husband’s character, citing their 21 years of marriage together. Conrad and Hefner were married from 1989 to 1998 and shared two sons, including Marston Hefner, 36, and Cooper Hefner, 35.
“We shared a lifetime of beautiful memories, raised two wonderful sons together and had a deeply loving bond that remained strong until his passing on September 27, 2017 and continues with me today,” Kimberly wrote. “I often told him that if you looked up the word gentleman in the dictionary, you would find his name and photograph. Hef was in every sense of the word, a true gentleman, kind, loving, generous, philanthropic and a man of extraordinary character.”
She continued, “The loss of Hef was devastating and his absence is still deeply felt. I had the privilege of knowing and loving the man behind the public image, and I will always cherish the life and memories we shared. I will always believe that the world was a better place because he was in it. I will be forever grateful and blessed.”
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