Playboy model Crystal Harris reveals real reason she abruptly called off wedding to Hugh Hefner

Former Playboy model Crystal Harris has opened up about the real reason she abruptly ended her marriage to Hugh Hefner.

Crystal, now 39, is the third wife of Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner. The pair, who held a 60-year age gap, married from 2012 until his death in September 2017. They had a private ceremony at the Playboy Mansion on New Year's Eve in 2012, after initially calling off their wedding in 2011.

The American model has been very candid over the years about what went down within the marriage, and the rest of the Playboy mansion, for that matter, with one of her more recent admissions coming during an appearance on ITV's This Morning back in 2024.

"When we were getting married, he was filming a show called Marrying Heff, and I was expected to be part of the show," Crystal began, explaining that her talent fee was $2,500.

Her multi-millionaire husband, however, was making a staggering $800,00 per episode.

The Lifetime special was planned but eventually cancelled.

Playboy model Crystal Harris was married to Hugh Hefner for five years before his death in 2017 (Denise Truscello / Contributor / via Getty)

Recalling what happened once Hefner handed her the release, Crystal shared: "I said, 'Oh, this isn't very fair', and I remember him asking me, 'Oh, what are you in this for? And it gave me PTSD from all the interview questions. I was a low-hanging fruit, people would ask me horrible questions, and that was, yeah, that was one of the reasons I left."

In another interview, Crystal claimed that Hefner would control almost everything about the girls, from their hair colour to how they had their nails done.

According to People, she said: "Our nail polish couldn’t be anything but some neutral colour, no French manicure."

Crystal has been very open over the years about what went down in the infamous Playboy mansion (Paul Archuleta / Contributor / Getty Images)

She claims he would also critically point out her dark roots every time they would start to grow through the blonde.

Crystal recalled: "So I’d have to go bleach it, and it would burn my scalp, and I’d have blisters. But for some reason, I thought this was all normal, and that’s what it meant to be seen as beautiful in Hef’s eyes."

Other rules were 'don’t have a belly button ring because that’s trashy' and had 'wear the flag' (aka Playboy logo shirts), which Crystal said were 'uncomfortable and cheap'.

Further opening up on what the state of the house itself was like, she revealed it was actually quite 'run down and gross' despite Hefner wanting all the women to look a certain way.

She told the publication: "This place doesn’t really get cleaned that well, and there’s mould, and it just felt just kind of run down and gross after a while.

"Too, too many parties. It was worn out.”