Hugh Hefner's widow has explained the sad reason why the Playboy Mansion owner chose his infamous lifestyle.
Crystal Harris married the magazine publisher in 2012 when she was 26 and her husband was 86.
She was Hefner's third and final wife until his death in 2017, and earlier this year published a confessional book detailing life in the infamous mansion.
In Saying Only Nice Things: Surviving Playboy and Finding Myself, she outlines the misogyny and objectification she experienced within her so-called “glamorous” lifestyle.
Appearing on ITV's This Morning, Harris spoke about the filthiness of the Playboy Mansion and how he has thought about the “psychology” of living there.
Hosts Alison Hammond and Dermot O'Leary also questioned her about how Hefner “ended up there.”
Harris explained that she “went to therapy for about five years” after leaving the apartment, but realized the place had “messed me up more” than she realized.
Crystal Harris was Hefner's third wife. (Charlie Garay/Getty Images, courtesy of Playboy)
“When I was there, in a way I felt sorry for him. I felt sorry for him. From the time I knew him, he was kind of a lost boy who had created this lifestyle to heal his emotional wounds,” she said.
“But it didn't help anything and it certainly made him sad.”
She further alleged that Hefner told her that he “didn't get much love as a child” and that “a lot of the girls he liked didn't like him back.”
“So I think it was his way of proving everybody wrong or getting back at people. I don't know,” she added.
As former Bunny Isabella St. James said, Hefner may have created this lifestyle to heal his own “emotional wounds,” but it wasn't necessarily good for people's health.
Her memoir talks about life at the mansion. (Raymond Hall/GC Images)
Harris said she ended up getting “terribly ill” and had the mansion inspected for mold, which revealed “toxic mold everywhere.”
“It ended up costing $2 million to renovate the house and it was in a terrible, terrible condition,” she added.
St James also said the mattresses on the beds were “old, worn, dirty and in poor condition.”
“Hef was used to dirty carpeting. The carpet in his bedroom hadn't been replaced in years, and the situation was made significantly worse when Holly Madison moved into his apartment shortly after I moved in as Girlfriend No. 1, bringing with her two dogs,” she said.
Ms St James also claimed the dogs were not housetrained and would simply “relieve” on the carpet.
