Bill Cosby was convicted of rape — well, aggravated indecent assault — for his use of pills, reportedly Quaaludes, that he would allegedly use to drug women and then have sex while they were unable to consent. But was his buddy Hugh Hefner doing the same thing for years?
As part of the upcoming docuseries Secrets of Playboy, premiering Monday January 24 on A&E, several members of Hef’s inner circle are coming forward with stories of the debauchery — and perhaps even criminal activity — that went on for decades at the Mansion.
Related: Cosby Accuser Breaks Silence On Overturned Conviction
We’ve already heard about the so-called “Pig Nights,” where Hefner would amuse himself by hiring “ugly” prostitutes to have sex with him and his friends. But this next claim goes beyond bad taste and cruelty — and potentially enters into criminal enterprise.
Model Sondra Theodore, who dated Hefner in the late 1970s and early 1980s, says the sex was constant and “broke me like you’d break a horse.” But it wasn’t an intimate affair between two people. She claims there were orgies most nights at that time:
“The group sex was at least five nights a week. They had a protocol. He liked to direct and you didn’t segue away from it because you could tell it irritated him.”
The 1977 Playmate claims that as Hef’s right-hand woman she was used to pull women to the publisher:
“It just got ugly, I felt like I was a ringmaster, I had to put on the same show on every night. It was the same script: ‘welcome to the family, we’re embracing you.’ It was all a lie. I watched girl after girl show up, fresh faced, adorable and their beauty just washed away. We were nothing to him… he was like a vampire. He sucked the life out of these girls for decades.”
Jeez. Put that way it sounds more like sex trafficking than modeling. And she wasn’t the only one giving off that vibe. Miki Garcia, former director of Playmate promotions, says:
“It was cult-like. The women had been groomed and led to believe they were part of this family. He really did believe he owned these women.”
She added that the toll of the treatment was clear:
“We had Playmates that overdosed, that committed suicide.”
While some models have refuted the stories of orgies, Sondra’s story seems in line with Holly Madison‘s accounts of her early days in the mansion and first time sleeping with Hef, as well as other Bunnies — and that was over 20 years later.
Sondra says at one point in the forthcoming doc:
“[Hef] scared me at the end… you couldn’t satisfy him. He wanted more and more and more.”
She also says, unsurprisingly, that cocaine was a big part of the lifestyle at that time, and was kept on the premises at all times. But that wasn’t the most problematic drug present…
Hef’s executive assistant during those years, Lisa Loving Barrett, says he had a stockpile of Quaaludes — the same drug Cosby was allegedly using during those years and beyond to rape women. Hefner, Barrett, and other employees all got prescriptions, but the pills ALL went to a drawer in Hef’s bedroom — where he could use them on women he brought there. Lisa says the pills were nicknamed “leg spreaders” in the Mansion and were thought of by Hef as a “necessary evil” because they would make women do whatever he wanted.
Well, the “evil” part was right on the money…
Holly Madison has previously said Hef offered her a Quaalude her first night in the Mansion. In her memoir Down The Rabbit Hole, she wrote:
“‘Would you like a Quaalude?’ Hef asked, leaning toward me with a bunch of large horse pills in his hands, held together by a crumpled tissue.”
She declined, she says, which is probably why she remembers with perfect clarity what he said next:
“Hef did not miss a beat: ‘Okay, that’s good,’ he said, nonchalantly. ‘Usually, I don’t approve of drugs, but you know, in the ‘70s they used to call these pills thigh openers.’”
He wasn’t even ashamed of it.
We guess we shouldn’t be surprised about any of this. Hef and Cosby were good friends for many years. He said in 2014 that the accusations coming out against the TV dad were “truly saddening,” telling USA Today:
“Bill Cosby has been a good friend for many years and the mere thought of these allegations is truly saddening. I would never tolerate this kind of behavior, regardless of who was involved.”
But just two years later Hef himself was the subject of sexual battery lawsuit along with Cosby. A woman named Chloe Goins said Cosby plied her with drinks and drugs at the Mansion in 2008, when she was just 18 years old, then assaulted her while she was unconscious. Her suit cited other accusations of incidents of Cosby doing the same to other women at the Mansion as evidence Hef “was familiar with Defendant COSBY’s habit and act of intoxicating young women and spending the night with them while at his residence.” Another lawsuit had claimed Cosby sexually assaulted a 15-year-old girl, also at the Playboy Mansion. The suit continued:
“Defendant HEFNER’s actions of inviting and hosting young and impressionable and possibly minor children to his residence, and providing alcoholic beverages and or foreign substances was negligent at the very least.”
And along with these new claims by his assistant, it seems like there’s evidence Hef didn’t just know about Cosby — they were two of a kind.
Goins’ case was settled out of court in 2019. Hugh Hefner died in 2017, so although he briefly fought the suit, he didn’t have to face much fallout from it. To be honest, it sounds like he didn’t have to face much consequence from any of his actions over the years. We’ll let you know what else comes out when the doc premieres next week.
[Image via MEGA/WENN.]
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