Jenny McCarthy. Arlene Richie/Shutterstock
It’s best to just sit down. Jenny McCarthyShe is one of the most well-known Playmates, but she was absent from Playboy Secrets — and there’s one big reason she decided not to participate.
“I didn’t experience those things,” the Masked Singer judge, 49, explained during the Wednesday, August 24, episode of the “#NoFilter With Zack Peter” podcast. “And hearing their stories, my heart broke for a lot of these women.”
The Bad HabitsThe author also noted that Hugh Hefner was a married man. Kimberley ConradDuring her time with the brand. (McCarthy was named Playmate of the Month for the magazine’s October 1993 issue and later became the 1994 Playmate of the Year.)
“It was kind of run like a strict dormitory,” the former model said of her time in the Playboy Mansion. “Like, we weren’t even allowed near Hef or around the house. It was almost like Catholic school. There were no big parties or orgies. So, I think I went in there in a window of time that was kind of safe, but hearing some of these girls’ stories was really rough.”
Many of the participants in the A&E docuseries — which premiered in January — described a very different version of the Playboy Mansion than what McCarthy recalled. Holly MadisonHefner’s time with her in 2015 memoir by, authored by, Down the Rabbit Hole, said the atmosphere in the mansion was “cult-like” when she lived there.
“At the mansion, the indoctrination, I feel, starts almost immediately when you’re there, and you start hearing about how wonderful Hef is from his circle of his friends,” the Girls Next Door alum, 42, said during the show’s premiere episode. “So, in the beginning, Hef is what you would now call a love bomber. He’s somebody who tells you ‘I love you’ almost immediately.”
Though McCarthy doesn’t have the same negative memories of Playboy that Madison and others do, she still has tons of respect for the crew who made it.
“They had asked me to host that show,” the Singled OutAn alum commented, claiming that the filmmakers asked the actress six times to join the production. “I love the production company — I’m gonna put that out there, because I do love them. But because I didn’t have the same experiences, I wasn’t going to sign up for a paycheck and be salacious.”
Madison is Madison. Bridget MarquardtMcCarthy and other Playmates recall Hefner’s time so differently than McCarthy, comparing it to the way McCarthy and her siblings have different memories of their childhoods.
“I have three sisters, and when I’m publicly telling my stories of childhood, some of them will call me and [ask], ‘What house were you raised in?’ Each one of them have whole point of view and perception,” the Illinois native explained. “That’s the analogy I would use with Playmates. Yes, we were all in the same house. We all didn’t experience the same s–t.”
