Holly Madison Says What Aspect of the Playboy Mansion Was 'Kind of Cult-y'

Former Playboy star Holly Madison said during an episode of her Girls Next Level podcast that aspects of moving into the Playboy Mansion in 2001 were "kind of cult-y."

On the Monday episode, Madison explained to co-host and fellow The Girls Next Door alum Bridget Marquardt that she had difficulty making friends when she first arrived at the mansion.

"You know when they always talk about people joining a cult, they're kind of, like, cut off from their friends and family? Well, that happened to me," she said. "Not because I was given orders like, 'You can't talk to these people,' but it just kind of naturally happened."

She added that she had some "acquaintances" but they too "fell off" when they "heard I moved into the mansion."

Madison believed that people also tried taking advantage of her by asking to be invited to parties and hoping to earn a spot in the magazine.

"When I couldn't provide those things, those people got pissed," she said. "Because they just thought I was holding out."

Newsweek reached out to Madison for comment.

Madison and Marquardt have been spilling behind-the-scenes details about their experiences at Playboy on their podcast, including what it was like being intimate with their boyfriend Hugh Hefner, the publication's founder and former Editor-in-Chief.

Madison revealed she was "really wasted" during her first encounter with Hefner after she drank "so many vodka cranberries" to calm her nerves.

At the time, the now mom of two, who shares kids Rainbow Aurora and Forest Leonardo Antonio with her ex Pasquale Rotella, wanted to move into the mansion after her roommates said they would be signing a new lease without her.

"The first thing that happens is the recruiter says, 'Daddy...'—I'm gagging as I'm saying this—but everybody used to call him Daddy in the bedroom, which is so gross," Madison recalled. "So she'd be like, 'Daddy, do you wanna get the new girl?' And I s**t you not, next thing I know he's on top of me."

Marquardt added that women compared sex with Hefner, who died of cardiac arrest at the age of 91 in 2017, to a "chore."

"We thought we had to or else we'll get kicked out of the house," she said. "Everybody just wanted to make it go by as quickly as possible."

That said, not everyone had the same experiences as Madison and Marquardt at the Playboy Mansion. Jenny McCarthy, who was Playboy's Miss October in 1993 and was named Playmate of the Year in 1994, said she was treated differently.

"Hearing some of these girls' stories is really rough," McCarthy said on the #NoFilter With Zack Peter podcast on August 24. "I didn't experience those things."

Instead, The Masked Singer judge said the mansion was more like a "Catholic school."

"There were no orgies or big parties going on, so I think I went in there in a window of time that was kind of safe," she added.