Hugh Hefner, Playboy Founder, ‘Got Scared’: The Whole Story Behind the Theft of Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee’s Tape
Hugh Hefner, known for his iconic red robe, was reportedly shaken by the leak of Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee’s stolen sex tape, according to reports.
This claim was made by Crystal Hefner, the third and final wife of the Playboy magazine founder, in her new autobiography, “Only Say Good Things: Surviving Playboy and Finding Myself.”
“[Hefner] told me he filmed all sorts of things in his bedroom,” Crystal told Fox News Digital. “He had little cutouts, and that’s where they would record. And when the Pam and Tommy Lee tapes came out, it really scared him, to the point where he had a security guard throw them all into the ocean.”
In the book, Crystal describes how Hefner, who was 60 years her senior, always carried a disposable camera and encouraged his girlfriends and aspiring Bunnies at the Playboy Mansion to pose provocatively for him.
“Many girls did, and I watched as those cameras filled up with the most incriminating images – rolls and rolls of potential blackmail if he ever wanted to use it that way,” she wrote. “He also kept a little black book where he wrote down the names of every single woman who went up to the bedroom. And I recently discovered little spy holes on either side of the big televisions at the foot of the bed, where one might set up cameras.”
Crystal confronted the magazine mogul, who proudly told her, “I used to do a lot of filming. VHS. I had hours of video, hundreds of sexy tapes.” He then noted, “It’s my bedroom. My house.”
It was then that Hefner allegedly told her, “I destroyed them all. After the Pam and Tommy Lee thing.”
Crystal alleged in the book that Hefner told her some of the videos were of him having sex with multiple women.
“We were disposable,” Crystal wrote.
Pamela Anderson, also a Playboy cover girl, married Lee, one of the founders of Mötley Crüe, in 1995 after just four days of dating. They became the center of a scandal in 1996 when a safe containing a sex tape of the two was stolen by a disgruntled ex-employee.
The couple attempted to block the video’s release, and the “Baywatch” actress sued the video distribution company that had access to the tape. However, it was eventually released online, and Anderson dropped the lawsuit.
Crystal’s marriage to Hefner ended when he died in 2017 at age 91. Crystal alleged that during their union, Hefner was always on the lookout for “new girls” to join them behind closed doors. In her book, Crystal wrote that “it became my job to help find girls to come up to the bedroom at parties at the mansion, or on an increasingly rare night out. It was part of the reason we… went out at all.”
Crystal said she realized early on that sex was part of the role, but over time it took her time to realize that Hefner didn’t care about what anyone else wanted or needed. “It was all his needs, and we were just there to meet them. That happened over time.”
“Women were always throwing themselves all over Hef, so you had to be on guard and make sure you looked your best at all times in case you were going to be replaced,” she shared. “There were a lot of parties. A lot of girls wanted to come upstairs, maybe out of curiosity, or maybe they wanted to just say that they did. I’m not exactly sure what all the motives were. Some wanted to be Playmates.”
“But… I was happy to have other women with me in the bedroom because it was less pressure,” the 37-year-old continued. “It felt like less of a performance I had to put on. That’s what Hef wanted, and I was fine with it. At that point, I realized, ‘This man cannot be in love with me if he [wants] multiple people in the bedroom. That’s not love.”
Crystal said she was content that Hefner wasn’t in love with her. The feeling was mutual.
“I respected him in the beginning, cared for him and loved him, but not in the way that… I’m in love with this person,” she said. “Not at all.”
Crystal said that when it came to having multiple partners, Hefner didn’t sway from his preference.
“The girls that he would look at or want to be around were always baby-faced, blonde, white girls with big boobs,” she said. “Skinny girls with implants or big boobs. They all had to be blonde. It’s crazy because you think of Playboy [as] freedom [of] expression, and… it’s just what Hef liked. He put the blonde white girls in the magazine all the time, most of the time. It’s crazy how he got away with that for so long. He probably really affected beauty standards and culture.”
In the book, Crystal alleged that Hefner used “little blue pills” in the bedroom. He would play Madonna’s “Dress You Up” to create “his idea that we were all having a fun party time.”
Crystal said she played that song “over and over again” so that no other song, including any of her favorites, would be associated with his bedroom.
“Today, Crystal is in a happy, healthy relationship.” She splits her time between Los Angeles and her lychee farm in Hawaii as she continues to “live my best, finally free life.”
“This book is about… self-worth,” said Crystal. “It’s about self-love. There was a huge imbalance of power when I was at the Playboy Mansion between Hef and me, and I didn’t know who I was. I didn’t have any power. And when you don’t know who you are, that could be given to you by someone else, but it could also be taken away. So, I really want, especially women, to read this book and be able to get a sense of self-worth and have a lot of self-love.”
