Hugh Hefner was an American businessman, an editor of adult magazines, a political and social activist, and a philanthropist. Here you will find everything you need to know about the Playboy magazine multimillionaire, who was famous for his Casanova lifestyle.
Hugh Hefner Dead
Hugh Hefner died on Wednesday, September 27, 2017, leaving a great legacy, from his company to his infamous Playboy mansion and, of course, many women. In a statement confirming his death to the media, his company’s Playboy was named in a statement;
“Hugh M. Hefner, the American icon who introduced Playboy magazine to the world in 1953 and made the company one of the most famous American global brands in history, has died today peacefully and naturally in his home, The Playboy Mansion, surrounded by his loved ones. He was 91 years old”.
After the news of his death, the many women whom Hefner had helped launch their careers turned to social media to dedicate their homage. According to Playboy, Hefner leaves behind his 31-year-old wife Crystal and four grown children. The New York Times reported that he is to be buried in Westwood Memorial Park in Los Angeles.
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Hugh Marston Hefner was born on April 9, 1926, in Chicago, Illinois, the son of conservative Protestants from Nebraska. He was a World War II veteran and served as a writer for a military newspaper in the U.S. Army from 1944 to 1946. Hefner graduated from the University of Illinois in 1949 with degrees in psychology and creative writing.
He then attended Northwestern University, where he took graduate courses in sociology but never graduated. Hefner worked as a copywriter for Esquire until January 1952, when he left the company after his $5 raise application was ignored.
Hugh Hefner Net Worth
After he left Esquire, Hefner founded Playboy magazine with $10,000 from various sources, including $600 from his own pocket and $1,000 credit from his religious mother.
Hefner said of his mother that she did not support him “because she believed in the company, but because she believed in her son.
Almost immediately the business became a huge success. The first issue of Playboy magazine, published in December 1953, contained a nude photo of Marilyn Monroe (for which Hef paid $200) and sold over 50,000 copies.
Playboy quickly became more popular and became famous for its trademark, the Bunny Girls. In a short time, he grew into Playboy Enterprise, which includes television, film, resorts, nightclubs, products, charities, and websites. The magazine contained nude pictures, short stories by well-known writers, and interviews with public figures.
Playboy magazine went public in 1971 and a year later it had sold over 7 million copies. This was undoubtedly the peak of Hefner’s fortune, as it was allegedly worth about 200 million dollars. Reports also say that at that time he was earning about 12 million dollars annually.
During this time, Hef paid $1.1 million for the Playboy Mansion, which was to become infamous for its wild parties with naked girls dressed only in body paint. The mansion was decorated by celebrities such as John Lennon, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Cindy Crawford.
The Playboy Mansion was sold in August 2016 for $100 million to 33-year-old Daren Metropoulos, son of billionaire C. Dean Metropoulos. However, the purchase was subject to the condition that Metropoulos could only move into the 21,987 square meters Playboy Villa after the death of Hef, who lived there.
The villa, designed by Arthur R. Kelly in 1927, covers about 5 hectares and includes 12 bedrooms, 21 bathrooms, a theatre, a gym, and a tennis court.
Hefner’s wealth suffered a blow in the 1980s when the Internet was flooded with free porn. Some of his clubs, including one in the UK, were closed due to irregularities.
He suffered another blow, this time to his health when he suffered a stroke in 1985. As a result, Hef handed over the management of his company to his daughter Christie.
Then came the new millennium, and Hufner’s wealth declined again when Playboy’s stock price dropped about 80%. This forced Hefner to privatize the company. In recent years, the company has made more than half of its revenues from its licensing business rather than from media.
When he filed for divorce from Kimberley Conrad in 2009, Hefner declared his assets at $43 million. At the time of his death, Hef owned approximately 35% of the Playboy brand and was 100% owner of the magazine. In recent years, Hefner’s net worth was estimated at $50 million, but that did not include the sale of the Playboy mansion for $100 million.
Hugh Hefner Partners/Wife
A revered Casanova, Hefner, bedded more women than he could remember throughout his life. When asked by Esquire how many women he slept with, he said
“How could I know that? Certainly over a thousand.”
“There were parts of my life when I was married, and when I was married I never cheated. But I made up for it when I wasn’t married. You have to keep your hand in,” he added.
Hefner married his first wife Millie Williams in 1949 and divorced her a few years after he became wealthy in 1959.
During an episode of E! True Hollywood Story, Hefner revealed shocking details about his first marriage to Millie Williams. He said Williams had confessed her infidelity to her before her marriage. She had cheated on him while he was in the army. He called that moment “the most devastating moment of my life.” So she allowed him to sleep with other women while they were married.
After their divorce, Hef got married 30 years later. He married his former playmate Kimberley Conrad in 1989 and was divorced in 2010.
His third marriage, and perhaps the most discussed, was with Crystal Harris, another of his former playmates. He was 86 then and Crystal was 26.
When he talked about his marriage to Crystal, Hef said
“All our friends think it was made in heaven. “They’re just people who don’t know us, who just see us as stereotypes of age and beauty.
He added;
“I just feel very, very lucky to have found her at this stage of my life. I saved the best until the end. I want the rest of my life to stay the way it is now. I want it to be that way.”
When Crystal was asked why she decided to marry an old Hef, she said;
“Well, for me it meant more security knowing I was the one for him. As we said, there’s always girls coming in and out, and always the feeling of maybe being replaced… And he made me feel less like that, and that’s what the wedding was about.”
He stayed married to Crystal until he died. Crystal lives with Lyme disease. She told her fans about Instagram in 2016 and said, “I was diagnosed a few days ago and I still have a long way to go. They say you get it from ticks, but I have absolutely no recollection of being bitten or having a rash or anything else.
Later she told her fans on Facebook that her condition was caused by her breast implants.
Girlfriends
When it comes to the subject of Hef’s girlfriends, he had many of them. As seen on his E! show “Girls of The Playboy Mansion” on television, Hef went out with about three women at once.
The women Hef was romantically involved; Kendra Wilkinson, Holly Madison, Donna Michelle, the Shannon twins, Bridget Marquardt, Marilyn Cole, Joni Mattis, Dasha Astafieva, Brande Roderick, Heather Kozar, Caroline Imhof, Marina Baker, Jenna Bentley, Sandee Westgate, Izabella St. James, Lillian Muller, Patti McGuire, Dalene Kurtis, Cathi O’Malley, Christi Shake, Charis Boyle, Zoe Paul, Janine Habeck, Shannon Tweed, Barbi Benton, Karen Christy, Daina House, Sondra Theodore, Jessica Hahn, Sandy Bentley, Buffy Tyler, Katie Lohmann, Lana Kinnear, Stacy Burke, Amanda Bentley, Teri Harrison
Cristal Camden, Tiffany Holiday, Tina Marie Jordan, Regina Lauren, Kimberley Stanfield, Stephanie Heinrich, Sondra Theodore, Suze Randall, Sheila Levell, Terri Welles, Melissa Dawn Taylor, Candy Loving, Carrie Leigh, Anna Sophia Berglund, Gale Olson.
Children
Surprisingly, Hefner only fathered 4 children, all born in the marriage bed. His first marriage to Millie Williams produced a daughter named Christie and a son named David.
Christie was born on November 8, 1952. She was the chairman and managing director. She resigned from this position in 2009. Christie explained that she resigned because she wanted to become more involved in charitable work. She is the founder of the Hugh M. First Amendment Award. Christie is a publisher by profession and was married to former Illinois State Senator William A. Marovitz from 1995 to 2013. They had no children.
David Hefner is the eldest son of Hugh, who has amazingly avoided media attention. He is reported to have a computer consulting firm Hef tweeted a photo of himself and David in 2012, but the photo has since been removed.
Hef’s second marriage to Kimberley Conrad produced his other two children; sons Marston and Cooper Hefner.
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Martson Hefner was born on April 9, 1990. He spent the first eight years of his life at the Playboy Mansion, Martson often got into trouble and was arrested once for attacking his girlfriend, playmate Claire Sinclair.
According to Martson’s interview with GQ magazine in 2008, he is not so much into a luxurious lifestyle.
Cooper Hefner, on the other hand, took after his father. A clear proof of this is the pictures he posts on his Instagram account.
He was born on September 4, 1991. As a film producer, he is the chief creative director of Playboy Enterprises, a role he took on in 2016. He is also the founder and former CEO of the newly founded media company Hop and a member of the California State Military Reserve.
In 2015 he hired Harry Potter actress Scarlett Byrne. He had her pose nude for the March/April 2017 issue of Playboy magazine.
Hugh Hefner enjoyed his life to the full. He told this to the Hollywood Reporter in 2011;
“Could I be in a better place and happier than I am now? I don’t think so. In my wildest dreams, I could not have imagined a sweeter life.”
RIP Hugh Hefner.
