Guerrero: In the early 2000s,
"girls next door" was one
of the most popular reality shows on tv.
We all fell in love with those blonde girls next door,
and we also fell in love with hugh hefner.
That world seemed fun and innocent,
and the girls were pretty fun to watch.
In the final season of the show, two twins,
karissa and kristina shannon, played two of hef's girlfriends.
-Hi. I'm kristina. -I'm karissa.
After the "secrets of playboy,"
they decided to finally come forward
and share their story.
And we're about to hear a side of their story
that they have never told until today.
It's like you're in a cult. The isolation that I had--
I was a shell of a person.
Hef doesn't like to use protection.
There was at one point an std that went around.
I got a call saying, like, "hey, you're pregnant."
I didn't want any part of it.
He's just a creepy old man
with power.
♪♪♪
you know, I've been fascinated
with, uh, your stories, because although
I'm a chief investigative correspondent
on "inside edition"...
Why would you try to take advantage
of young women like this?
...When I was 20 and 21, I used to be a "playboy" model.
I shot for "playboy" lingerie,
and then eventually I did a cover...
-Oh, wow. I didn't... -...In 2006.
And there are so many questions I wanna ask you.
I think the best way to do this is to just talk about
how you got there to begin with
and a little bit about your background.
Tell me about your childhood and--and how you grew up
and where you grew up.
We were three months premature.
We were born in ann arbor, michigan.
Our biological mom was never involved in our lives.
We didn't even get to really know our father.
-He was very abusive. -We always think to ourselves
we were born into this life together because we knew
we were gonna need each other. -We were gonna...
That's so sweet, and that's, um, that's really sad.
Our father's side is the one who raised us,
so when we refer to "mom," that's--it's our grandma.
-Your grandma. -Annette.
Yeah, our grandma. But she's "mom" to us.
And where did you grow up?
We moved to clearwater beach, florida,
with our grandmother.
She was really, like, our stability, our foundation.
When my grandfather passed away of cancer,
he had left her under a mountain of debt,
so we ended up having to move off of clearwater beach
and into a trailer park in florida.
-For four years. -For four years.
Basically, school wasn't an option for us.
We had to drop out and get jobs.
We worked at winghouse as waitresses,
which is the same exact outfit like hooters.
You have a dolphin short.
And we always wanted to be models,
so this was like the beginning of our modeling career,
is being able to be like winghouse girls,
doing commercials, menus, billboards.
Wings, beer, and atmosphere.
Both: And yes, we're identical twins.
All: Need we say more?
How old were you when you first started working for winghouse?
Both: 15.
And you kind of considered this glamorous.
-Yeah. -Yeah.
So we were like, "this could be our chance."
yeah.
At what point did you start watching "girls next door"?
-15, 16. -So I think that's when
we were hostessing. We were fans of the show.
We were very much fans, yeah.
And we loved kendra and most identified with her.
'cause she was the younger one. She liked rap.
She was more like hip-hop like us.
We liked rap music.
This is interesting because the fan base was young women.
We knew there would be some interest
because it was the playboy mansion.
What I did not anticipate was how
hugely popular it would become, and particularly,
how hugely popular with young women.
We wanted to have their boobs. We wanted to, like,
we were dirty blonde naturally.
We wanted to have platinum blonde hair.
So the playboy mansion--
I'm, like, it just looks like heaven.
It's like you're royalty there, and hef looks so nice.
You viewed the mansion as an adult disneyland.
-Yes, exactly. -Yeah.
Did you ever think that you
would end up on "girls next door"?
No, not at all.
We just wanted to be models, but, um,
when we were watching "the girls next door,"
and we were modeling for winghouse,
the photographer's, like,
"hey, I know how to get girls into 'playboy.'"
"and, like, do a photo shoot and submit your photos."
"and do a photo shoot and submit your photos."
-how old were you? -Both: 17.
-17. -Both: Mm-hmm.
So you're underage.
-Underage, yeah. -Mm-hmm.
Asked if you would be willing
to take nude pictures to send to "playboy."
-yeah. Yeah. -Correct.
Now do you remember
the first time that you posed for "playboy"?
We were flown out to miami for a test shoot.
-We had just turned 18. -Mm-hmm.
And, um, it was tasteful.
That was al the first time that I looked at a,
you know, a monitor and seen we're actually beautiful.
-I've never had, you know... -Hair and makeup done.
...Professional hair and makeup and all that.
And it's like, oh, my gosh. We are gorgeous.
What happens next? How do you actually get out to the mansion?
Halfway through the test shoot in miami,
they were sending the photos over,
and all of a sudden, we see
the photographer talking really fast
to someone on the phone.
Then all of a sudden, they just quit, and they're like,
"hefner likes them. He wants 'em there."
and we were like... [gasps]
"oh, my god. So we're playmates? Did we make it?"
and they're like, "oh, yeah, you made it."
-oh, my gosh. Hef loves them. -They said hef loved the photos.
They said holly loved the photos.
That must have been an amazing feeling.
-It was. -It really was.
They ended up reaching out to us.
Holly called, actually,
and she said, "oh, you made 'playboy' playmate,"
and they wanted us to fly out to california to shoot
55th anniversary on the tv show.
And we... [laughs] so we quit our job.
We quit winghouse,
put together two luggage bags,
and we're just getting ready to go to california.
And then on top of it, you're going to the playboy mansion,
and you're gonna be shooting a tv show,
and you're gonna be part of the 55th anniversary search.
It was a big deal.
We had the hef 1 limo pick us up...
-They miked us. -...From the airport.
-Miked us right away. -Yeah.
So when we first drove up
and saw the mansion gates opening,
this is what we saw on tv. ♪ come on-a my house ♪
both: ♪ my house ♪
driving up, it was like you're in tv land.
It just didn't seem real.
It's like "willy wonka and the chocolate factory."
you're like, oh, my god. I'm here.
Or you're like, the golden ticket.
You know what I mean? Like, oh, my god.
I got the golden ticket.
And we're just driving up to shoot our centerfold,
and then they, like, stopped at the security gate,
and they were like,
"okay, we're gonna film you guys getting out,"
and they just started directing you right away,
and we just signed a release form.
They're like, "you guys are gonna sign this release form."
did you read it before you signed it?
No.
Never read a contract in our life.
-Didn't know what we were doing. -We just--we were 18.
Once you're there and you're seeing, like,
it's like don't meet your hero behind the curtain or whatever,
that's, like, totally what it was.
It just started becoming a job right away.
I remember seeing holly for the first time,
and it was a completely different person.
What do you mean?
Like, before the cameraman would get her walking
into the house, she'd just be like, you know,
sitting there, you know, fixing her lipstick or whatever.
Drinking.
-Wouldn't even talk to you. -You know?
And then when the cameras would go up,
she's just back into character again.
All of it was for sure fake.
And that's one thing that hef was a genius at--was his image.
-You thought it was fake. -Mm-hmm.
You didn't think that he was really sleeping
with these young girls.
Hell, no. You don't think an 80-year-old man
is sleeping with three of these women.
Did it, uh, occur to you at some point
that the girls had boyfriends?
I actually thought that holly,
since she was the main girlfriend,
I thought that she, you know, was really trying to marry hef.
For bridget, I kinda feel like she was just holly's sidekick,
but with kendra, you could totally tell that
she had dated on the side.
Was it starting to occur to you that these three women
were on their way out the door,
and they were gonna be looking for new girlfriends?
We didn't think they were leaving at all.
Okay, so then from there, you go home.
And then what happened?
Yeah, so hef wrote a letter, old school,
and he said, "I would love for you guys to be my girlfriends
and to move in with me
and film 'the girls next door' show."
so when we got the letter, we were like,
of course, we're gonna go.
You knew what it meant to have a boyfriend...
-Mm-hmm. -...Which is, at your age now,
a sexual relationship.
-Mm-hmm. -Right.
Did you view the words in that letter
as something sexual? -No. [laughs]
no. No, no, no. Not at all. [laughs]
when he said--when he said to move in and be girlfriends
and live at the mansion...
We were girlfriends on the show.
...We thought, okay, come be part of the tv show.
You thought you were gonna be cast members in a tv show.
-Yeah. Exactly. -Exactly.
It was the best thing that's gonna happen to us from the life
that we were coming from. This was insanely huge.
So you joined the show.
How soon afterwards do you realize
that you're supposed to have
a relationship with hef off-camera?
Almost six months we were there.
So during that six months...
The other girls were transitioning out.
...The other girls, the old girls next door
were transitioning out, so, like, we would hear
on speakerphone, kendra ordering, like, pasta
and all the stuff and we were like, what the hell?
She was pregnant, and we didn't know.
So we were, like, we heard that, like, we were, like,
understanding holly's staying in a separate bedroom now.
And on our 19th birthday, we all went out to a club,
and that was the night that realized we were...
-What we got ourselves into. -...What we got ourselves into.
Like, this is what it is.
So you turn 19, and you all go out.
And what happens next?
We had a bunch of the playmates
that are shooting from our year.
Holly was with us. Kendra was with us.
We were all going out
to a nightclub for our 19th birthday.
And we were drinking, and then on the way back,
kendra in the limo is like, "you guys wanna smoke weed?
Do you guys smoke weed?"
and we're like, "hell, yeah, we smoke weed."
so we get back to the mansion, and we went upstairs
to smoke weed in hef's room.
And at the time, holly was not in there.
So it was me, karissa, kendra, and hef.
But when we all went to go smoke pot,
kendra didn't smoke.
So she leaves right when we're all going to smoke pot.
It was just me, you, and hef, and he knew we were nervous.
We were super nervous when kendra left.
-We didn't feel comfortable. -Super nervous 'cause...
And then he says, "hey, you could take this.
It will make... You won't be so nervous."
hugh hefner offers you a pill.
-Pills. -Mm-hmm.
And...
There were a couple pills in his hand.
-A couple of pills. -Mm-hmm.
-Do you take them? -Both: Yeah.
-You took them. -Yeah.
-He's 83. You're 19. -Correct.
So did you think that you would be having sex
with hugh hefner that night?
Both: No.
-Not at all. No. -Mnh-mnh.
T's your 19th birthday. You've been to the club.
You've been drinking,
and now you've accepted pills,
and you don't really know what those are,
from hugh hefner.
How are you feeling at this point?
[bleep] up. Like...
Really hazy and just, like, laying--
the most inebriated we've ever been.
We were wasted.
So when we got back, we were smoking pot,
taking pills, and just...
We're just gone.
[laughs]
so that night when we did get back to his room,
we put on the pajamas and all that, you know?
Um, I just remember me being on one side of him,
karissa being on the other side of him.
He was pulling our heads down, like a very hard pull
down to his penis so that we would give him oral sex.
♪♪♪
and that was our 19th birthday. You're never gonna forget that.
♪♪♪
we had never done a threesome together before.
We'd never want to.
He didn't-- he didn't even finish.
Just imagine this. Just imagine his old hand,
and it kind of shakes, touching a boob.
It's gross. It's like you're having sex with your grandpa.
And he laid there looking up, and he was like,
"my babies. My babies. See, you love me."
we were watching the clock next to his bed,
and it was like 4 a.M., 5 a.M.,
we're waiting for him to fall asleep. He falls asleep.
We ran down the hall
to the spare bedroom that we were in.
We hit the shower, steaming hot,
and, like, our skin was red from just trying to, like...
Both: Sterilize.
Wow.
After that night, I didn't feel like my body was mine anymore.
Like, I felt used, disgusted.
Yeah, like, I didn't wanna, you know, call my mom
and tell her anything.
-And now-- -both of us said
he's going straight to hell. -Oh, we both, like,
he's the devil. This is insane.
We were disgusted with ourselves.
Why did you feel like you had to do it?
Coming from our abusive father
and our biological mom leaving,
we really felt like we had to take care
of our grandmother who raised us,
and we didn't want him to take away
all of the success that we had built.
We thought he'd revoke our centerfold.
There was no going back.
You couldn't-- we couldn't leave.
♪♪♪
I believe that hef would prey on the younger girls like us
who came from a bad background
or the girls who were not so pretty--
he could promise them, like,
"oh, here's this beautiful castle, and you know,
I have all these surgeons," and he can make them beautiful
or give them an option to do "playboy,"
or, like, provide this playboy family to you.
Did it occur to you that he was grooming you?
Both: Yeah.
For sure. That--I think that's how he does it.
'cause we were only 18, turning 19.
Mm-hmm.
We were just learning and wanted to be women,
and, like, we've never even had bleach in our hair.
We don't know about makeup.
He really is grooming us, completely.
Everything's yes. You, like, get to eat what you want.
The butlers are calling you.
You can have alcohol on a platter.
I'm like, "oh, patrón and pineapple, hell, yeah!"
when we moved in, we got media training.
I wanna talk about that for a second.
-Mm-hmm. -What is media training?
What did you understand it to be?
They would just explain to us, you know, how to, um,
answer certain questions and how to dodge certain questions.
That would come up, like, the sister question.
What is the sister question?
Well, a lot of people would say we were incest
'cause we were both with him.
So they would say, you know...
They'd think we were hooking up.
So, like, those type of questions,
and it's kind of going with grooming you on how to act.
Is it kind of weird maybe kissing your boyfriend
after he's kissed your sister?
-No. -Not at all?
Mnh-mnh.
Ahh! [laughs] it's called acting.
So they kind of warned you
that this is what the press is gonna be asking you.
-Mm-hmm. -Well--
and here's what to say, 'cause--
what we didn't realize, though, is he was protecting his image.
They're training us to protect...
Both: His image.
It was not about us.
Okay, so you guys say that you partied a lot
at the mansion.
So let's take a look at this clip,
and you tell me what was happening here.
♪♪♪
kristina, we have to practice. Kristina!
♪♪♪
kristina, get up.
We were drunk every night,
so it was hard to get up in the morning
and have to do everything.
-You were drunk every night? -Every night to deal with him.
Wake up in the morning.
Especially kristina. I-I have to get her up sometimes.
-That was an all-nighter. -Yeah.
Dinner started at 5 every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday,
so at dinner is when we would start drinking.
They had open bar.
We would start drinking just in case
hef wanted to apply that pressure.
We'd party just like normal, and he's like,
"obviously, you girls don't wanna sleep in my bedroom"
because he realized we were
waiting for him to fall asleep and leave.
He's, like, not waking up with the twins next to him.
So he's like, "we need someone else."
[cheering]
and so down at one of the parties,
that's when we introduced him to crystal harris.
We have a roped-off party,
and we're just sitting there, like, at the table,
and there's tons of girls. Like, I mean, a pool of girls.
And they're like, "hef, hef, hef,
can I get a picture with you?"
crystal was one of the ones who came in with a friend,
and then she ended up staying in his room, sleeping there.
That night?
She actually slept that night and every other night.
-Stayed over. -Stayed over.
Uh, around midnight, at the parties,
he'd say, "oh, well, you know, I'm getting tired.
Let's go upstairs," and we kinda noticed the pattern.
After a while, it was like midnight.
He really always wants to go upstairs.
And a bunch of girls would just be begging
to go upstairs with hef-- begging.
And he's like, "is it okay with you if they come up?"
and we're like, "we don't mind."
-go ahead. -Do what he wants.
Clearly, if he maybe is fulfilled with those girls,
he won't want us. -So we, uh--
we just did not want any part of that.
But, um, the problem was is hef doesn't like to use protection.
-So he wouldn't use condoms? -No.
-From the butlers,
we'd just order like a bowl-- big bowl,
and we'd put hot water in it. Then we'd put rags in it.
So whoever was, you know, having intercourse with him,
when they were finished, they can wipe him off,
and then the other girl could...
-Do it. -...Do it.
And so you had to take it upon yourself...
Yeah.
...To try to have some semblance of...
-Yeah. -To avoid infections.
There was at one point an std that went around.
We caught chlamydia, and, um,
I remember going down to mary o'connor's office--
his assistant/ I'd say house mom for us,
and, uh, she's like,
"well, that's what happens when you're sexually active."
we freaked out.
When she said stds were normal when you're sexually active,
we're like, "everyone's out of their mind here."
well, this whole thing is-- is terrifying, I'm sure, for...
-Yeah. -...For 19-year-old women.
Are you still intimate with him during this stage?
After we caught the std,
we said we would never have sex with him again.
-That was it? -Both: That was it.
And we got different treatment because of that.
♪♪♪
from what I understand, there were rules
that you had to live by... -Mm-hmm.
...When you were, uh, on the show
and you lived at the mansion. -Mm-hmm.
What were some of the rules?
The rules were we had a 9:00 curfew.
We weren't allowed to be seen out with other men,
couldn't date other men.
He told us if we loved him
and we wanted to be his girlfriends,
we had to have sexual encounters with him.
So he turned it into proof of love.
-Yeah. -Proof of love, exactly.
♪♪♪
I feel like on "girls next door,"
hef was portrayed as like a kindly grandpa,
but that's not how he is.
It would make me so angry how manipulative he was.
Are there rules? Like, can you have boyfriends at all?
-No. -No.
-You're not allowed to. -Hef is our boyfriend.
-So... -How do you know when you're
called to the master bedroom? Do you have nights?
-Yeah. -Yeah.
Hef controlled every aspect of our life.
You were encouraged to not have friends over.
You weren't really allowed to leave
unless it was like a family holiday.
There was a 9 p.M. Curfew, uh, as a girlfriend,
so you had to be on the property by 9 p.M.
When it came to us, it was like, no.
He tightened the belt even more. He didn't want us to leave.
He hung, uh, certain things over our head.
We got punished, so, like,
we weren't allowed to do anything without security.
He said, "the twins can't go visit their family
unless security's there."
he had even had security follow you
if you went to the mall or... -Both: Oh, yeah.
Mm-hmm. We'd be downstairs, and he'd have
three security guards watching me
and watching karissa.
And they would always in the morning
come up with their report
of every single thing we did that night
the next morning for him.
Wait, what? They would write reports on everything you did?
-Everything. -Everything we did.
-Who we would hang out with. -Who we were hanging out with,
what we were drinking, what we ate. Everything.
Every time we left the property,
when did we leave, what time did we get back?
And then when we did start realizing
we have to hang out with playmates,
what playmates were we hanging out with? What did they eat?
What's with the "what did they eat?"
-he likes his girls thin. -To be thin.
-Very thin. -Very thin.
So hef has everybody on a certain diet.
This was such controlling...
-Mm-hmm. -...Behavior.
♪♪♪
[indistinct conversations]
we'd normally have our parties every weekend.
He'd would go upstairs with crystal and say,
"all right, have a good night. Security's watching you,"
and we got to stay down.
We weren't allowed to be with any friends
that were not playboy circle.
We kind of got a lot of press
from hanging out with all the people
going onstage and dancing.
We're very outgoing, like running the party.
We start being able to meet people.
Yeah.
Like all these different celebrities
that you're meeting and networking,
and like it's our backyard. It is.
And he found out we were hanging out with some asian girl.
He goes, "you're hanging out with some asian girl.
Is she a playmate?"
and I'm like, "is there a problem that she's asian?"
and he's like, "a playboy playmate, I told you,
is a type of girl," and he goes,
"you were hanging out with black guys at the bar!"
wait a minute. I thought he had this image of being progressive.
-Mm-hmm. -Um...
That's for his image.
Yes, he's genius about his image.
Every woman he dated was a white girl.
Hef would say, "all right, the twins are wild.
When I'm going upstairs, lock 'em up.
I want them on hmh arrest upstairs."
hmh arrest?
Hugh marston hefner. Hmh arrest.
-Yeah. -He locked us in our bedroom.
There would be a security guard sitting outside of our door.
You are locked in your rooms, essentially.
Mm-hmm.
[indistinct conversations, squealing]
so when he'd play backgammon every Sunday--Sunday funday--
we had to lay next to him.
The girls would come and ask for photos all the time,
that were invited up for those days,
and as he's going to take the photos,
he's, like, grabbing under, grabbing their vagina,
or, like, grabbed their boob,
or they'd, "look!" and they'd show their boobs to him,
and he'd grab 'em.
And the way he kisses, it's like, um, his mouth kisses.
He kissed every girl like an open-mouth kiss.
You guys, I went to the mansion when I was 20 and 21.
And I first met him when I was 20.
He came in for a, like, an open-mouth kiss.
And I went like this, and it was like a dog slobber on me.
-Mm-hmm. -But I could tell
he did not like that I turned my head.
-Turned. -Mm-hmm.
I remembered how repulsive
it was to be on the receiving end of that.
-Mm-hmm. -I can't believe that you had
to put up with that as long as you did.
[indistinct conversations]
he has so much power. It's like you're in a cult.
The isolation that I had from the outside world--it was...
Not talking to our family, too.
Not being able to talk to my family.
I wanted to go to church. I couldn't go to church.
I was a shell of a person, you know?
When we first got to the playboy mansion,
we were really, um, confident.
Big personalities.
You know, I felt like there always was this bright light
inside of us.
Like, hef would say we used to bounce in and out of a room.
Very entertaining to all of his friends and guests,
and people used to say, "gosh, well, when you guys got here,
it was a fresh breath of air."
so from the time that you experienced
that first night in his bedroom at 19...
-Mm-hmm. -...Until the light went out
was less than a year. -Less than a year.
And you had completely changed personality.
Yeah. I'm trying not to get emotional thinking about it.
You lose yourself being there.
All that innocence about us and all that, just being--
losing that and becoming a shell of a person,
it--it's hard.
It's like being in prison and like someone breaking you
in solitary confinement, like, you're just broken.
♪♪♪
so you came to the mansion thinking,
"we're gonna be centerfolds. I'm gonna be on a tv show.
We're going to live in the mansion,"
but the reality was different than the fantasy.
You had rules. You were watched constantly.
And yet that wasn't the worst thing
that happened to you, was it?
We did stop having sex with him when the std hit.
So for the first time, we put our foot down,
and hef was pressuring us to hook up with him.
So then mary o'connor suggested, "well, hef,
why don't you stay with the three girls, then?"
and he's never done that.
He's used to seven girls, nine girls,
but he actually agreed to that.
So then we're like, "oh, great, now he agreed to it.
Now we're gonna have to, like, end up having
to hook up with him."
this was like a business arrangement.
-Mm-hmm. -It was--it's like
a business arrangement, yeah.
Did you feel like you would lose the opportunity
to be on the show if you would have said no?
It wasn't just about the show.
We thought he would just send us back.
Like, he would take everything away that we had got.
Taking away the allowance, you know,
and not being able to take care of our grandmother.
We did not want him to take that away.
I was young and naive. You don't know you're allowed to say no.
And so you were kind of pulled back into this dark place...
-Yeah. -...Of--of having
to go upstairs, go into his bedroom,
and have sexual intercourse with him.
-Yeah. -We ended up doing it, like,
two more times and then just said we couldn't do it anymore.
And that's how later on, I ended up getting pregnant.
♪♪♪
one of those two times, you got pregnant.
Mm-hmm.
You know, he's having sex with you unprotected.
Um, you know, you were old enough
to know how people get pregnant.
I didn't think that I would
because I knew holly was trying to get pregnant,
and I knew that holly tried so hard,
so I was like, maybe we're in the clear.
-Didn't think it was possible. -I didn't think it was possible.
And again, how old is he?
-84. -84.
Like, you don't really think that would happen.
But we were--we were about the youngest girlfriends
he had had.
It was the end of 19. I was gonna turn 20.
I had no idea until the blood test
for my surgery, so a blood test is what told me.
We had plans to get our noses done and our boobs done.
So I got a call saying, like, "hey, you're pregnant,
and you have the surgery coming up," and that's--
I freaked. Like, I'm, like, "who else knows about this?"
and they're like, "well, we just called you,"
and I was like, "don't call mary.
Don't call hef. Don't call anyone.
I don't want anyone knowing."
it's hard to hide things at the mansion.
Wait. The first reaction that you had...
-Was scared. -...Was "who knows?"
who knows? Who in the office knows?
Why didn't you feel like you could go to hugh hefner
and say, "hef, I'm pregnant"?
I didn't want him to know that I was pregnant.
I didn't want him to want me to have it.
I didn't wanna be stuck even more inside that bubble.
I think it's a way for him to control me even more...
-I see. -...Having me on a leash.
Yeah.
I felt disgusted with my body. I didn't--
I felt like there was something, like, like, an alien inside me.
I was just grossed out.
[voice breaking] I just wanted to get it over and done with,
and... [sighs]
I called around for a few clinics.
And, um, 'cause we didn't wanna--
'cause security couldn't take us there
'cause otherwise hef would've found out.
Um, 'cause if we were together, I knew we would get a...
A lot more attention or a chance of paparazzi
walking in an abortion clinic.
You two do everything together,
but at this crucial moment in your life,
you have to walk in alone 'cause you're worried about paparazzi.
That is, to me, so gut-wrenching and sad.
-Yeah. -You had to be alone.
-[exhales deeply] -I'm so sorry.
I can't imagine what the two of you went through.
That's a double life.
That's why we love each other so much, too.
We really are strong for each other, you know?
Yeah, you are.
So, uh, I called my good friend juicy j from--
he's a rapper from three 6 mafia,
but we're really close.
So I made an appointment, and we went to sherman oaks mall,
got dropped off and said we were going shopping,
and juicy j picked us up at valet right away,
drove us in his car, and we dropped karissa off by herself.
I did the procedure, came out, got in his car,
and they dropped us back off at the mall,
and she ran up and purchased, like, two thongs
from victoria's secret to act like we went shopping.
Then we went back to the mansion,
and then all of a sudden, hef's like,
"oh, we have to film
for 'the girls next door' promo opening."
I think it was like two days later, maybe.
And they wanted us for that opening to be in bikinis
and all this stuff, and I couldn't go down there
'cause my stomach was swollen and I was bleeding a lot.
I just, uh, laid in bed and tried to play like I was sick.
And then lauren, our main field producer,
shuts the door and says, "what's going on?"
I had to tell someone.
Kristina says, "karissa just had an abortion."
and lauren, thank god, she didn't say anything.
But she did say, "well, what do you want me to tell hef?"
so then hef comes up, and I'm crying,
and he's like, "what's wrong?"
I said, "I'm sick. I just can't film."
he's like, "well, we could do it tomorrow."
and I said, "no," 'cause I don't know
if I'm gonna be all right by tomorrow.
So hef's like, "whatever you wanna do,"
and, like, leaves, all mad,
and then that's the first time we've said no.
We never say no to filming.
Lauren said, "all right, how about this, karissa?
You do your hair and makeup and go down,
and we will cut--put your head on your sister's body
if she's okay with it."
so, yeah, um, and then this opening,
my head--it's kristina's body. My head's put on her body.
I was the body double for both of us.
She was the body double for both of us
this day of the shoot for the opening.
[voice breaking] I went down and put on different bikinis.
And...That's the opening for "the girls next door"
and the bobblehead thing.
I mean, in a way, you were almost more concerned
about this reality show opening
than you were about your own body and health.
[crying] so...It's hard watching the opening for it.
[sniffles]
the fact that you were pregnant by somebody
that you didn't wanna have sex with...
Every time I've done it with him it's assault.
I'm ni--I'm a kid. I'm 19 years old.
I'm not even old enough to drink yet.
And he is just a creepy old man with power.
Women don't understand that they can say no. [sniffles]
I'm sorry. It's so hard to talk about, you know?
Do you look back and think to yourself
that you made the right decision?
100% I did, yeah.
Everyone, to each their own...
But for me it's like rape.
He would use control mechanisms
completely throughout everything,
so I'm happy that I had the abortion.
Because you felt like he raped you.
Yeah.
♪♪♪
[paparazzi shouting at once]
you know, while we were there, we also had a lot of opportunity
besides being "playboy" playmates.
Like, movies, commercials.
We did the "guitar hero" commercial with brett ratner.
We've done l'oréal France.
We've done, like, just tons of stuff,
and we did the "somewhere" with sofia coppola.
Can you tell me how you got that role in that film?
Sofia coppola contacted the mansion.
They asked us, "hey, we have a part..."
"do you want to come audition?"
"...We want you guys to come and audition for."
-she said-- -and then you got it.
Both: Yeah, we got it.
And hef was shocked. So they made a whole episode about it.
Thanks for having us.
Oh, yeah.
-Oh. -"fan of your father."
she's so uncomfortable. Like, he gave a backhanded compliment.
It was almost like he was groveling to her.
Both: Yeah.
Clearly, he really loves celebrities.
-It comes with movies. -Yeah, he loves movies.
-It's a big deal. -It's movies.
I'll tell you, this was the thing.
When our, uh, red carpet came for the premiere,
for the movie, we didn't want him to go,
'cause I knew it was gonna be more about him,
and he was gonna bring other women
and make it more about them, and to us, this was, like,
our--we did this. We got this on our own.
Can we have this to ourselves?
And so we told him
we didn't want him to come to the premiere,
and he said, "well, I'll send you with security in a limo,
but you have to do movie night."
"you have to stay for movie night..."
-and dinner. -"...And dinner as normal."
and this was what was embarrassing.
By the time the movie ended, we jumped up, got in the limo,
and by the time we got to the premiere,
it was already halfway through the beginning of the movie.
Sofia was waiting for us.
He made you miss your premiere...
-Both: Yeah. -...And the red carpet
of your premiere. -Both: Yep.
-So when-- -was he jealous?
-100% he was jealous. -It was like
he's now losing control of you, too,
'cause you're out there starting to make your own career.
Yep.
And it's almost like he couldn't handle it.
Yeah.
He's actually made a lot of money off of us
from just us living there.
He really resented the success of the other girls that left,
and he didn't want us to leave.
Let's talk about how you were able,
and I'm gonna use this word, escape.
We actually were scared.
We didn't know how to break up with him,
so we went to mary o'connor's office
and told her we didn't wanna be there anymore
but didn't know how to tell hef that.
It was like an hour goes by and then she calls us,
and says, "hey, uh, come-- you girls come down here.
I've got hef in here," and we were scared."
-mm-hmm. -He was pissed.
He said, "okay, so you guys wanna break up with me?"
and we're like, "yeah."
he said, "well, how about you go and live at the bunny house?"
hef had a lot of the girls staying at the bunny house,
which was across the street from the mansion,
and he said, "I'll give you guys $500 a week rather than $1,000.
-"you have to attend..." -attend.
Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
We agreed, but the first night, we went out to a, um, nightclub.
He saw that we were getting a lot of press,
and he did not like it, and--
so he said, "you stay here at the mansion,
and you can't be seen out,
or you guys have to leave the playmate house,"
and we're like, you know what? That's great for us,
'cause we just got a taste of freedom.
♪♪♪
it felt so weird, uh, going in a grocery store
and just buying groceries.
We just wanted to be adults,
figure out who we are as adults and as women,
'cause we weren't even women when we moved in.
We decided to open our own full-service beauty salon
in beverly hills, and we did do that for three years
and then sold it.
After you left the mansion, what was your emotional state?
We were diagnosed with ptsd,
and the psychiatrist said that we would need to go through
a lot of therapy to unravel our brain.
-Unwind our brain. -Unwind our brain.
Can you describe why and how that has affected your life?
-We're still dealing with it. -We're still dealing with it.
Yeah. I don't think that that part is ever gonna go away--
that part of us that was taken will ever go away.
And our mother passed away in 2014.
And so when she was gone,
it was like it just took everything away,
'cause she was all we ever had.
So you didn't have a biological family
at that point once your grandmother passed.
You didn't have your playboy family anymore
because you left. -Mm-hmm.
And so what did you wanna do with the rest of your lives?
I think we're still figuring everything out.
Yeah.
We still are gonna work in therapy.
Mm-hmm.
We do wanna have a family of our own,
but we need to get to the right space first.
Have you been able to date since hugh hefner?
Not serious dating.
We can't emotionally...Connect like that.
Did you ever go back and see hef again?
When we heard he was, like, not doing good,
went up for a movie night, like, at the end.
We saw him in a walker.
At this point, he's peeing in a bucket
next to the bed. -Nightstand.
He couldn't walk. Yeah, his health was bad.
Did you pity him?
I don't understand completely,
but a part of me does feel bad.
So it's like we wouldn't wish the worst on anyone.
♪♪♪
-people are gonna see this. -Mm-hmm.
And they're gonna say, "the twins became famous.
The twins were centerfolds.
The twins got to live in the mansion.
They got to live this life.
Now they're coming forward after the dude's dead."
both: Mm-hmm.
Is that fair?
But when we were staying there, he had a powerhouse behind him.
He had a whole team-- he had a whole team behind him.
He can hide anything. You can't even touch him.
-He felt untouchable. -So he felt untouchable.
He's squeaky clean. Untouchable.
I didn't know how much power we had
as young adults at 19.
Like, we had a lot more power, but we didn't know.
Coming up, dr. Kate balestrieri
will talk to us about backlash and moving forward.
♪♪♪
talking about hugh hefner, he has a legacy,
and people still exist that propped him up...
-Mm-hmm. -...All those years.
What would you like those people to know...
-The truth. -...About how you feel
about the legacy?
He had a lot of power. It's a new...
We're in a new era. We're in a new generation right now.
We're in a new world.
When the me too movement came out,
it, like, kind of opened the floodgates for...
-For a lot of women. -...For us to be able to talk
and know that we're not alone in the situations
we were all going through.
-We have a voice. -Mm-hmm.
♪♪♪
we so appreciate you opening up and telling us your story.
We know that it's painful. We saw how painful it was.
I felt how painful this was for you.
The story has been so powerful and really troubling.
We brought out dr. Kate because we want her to be able
to process some of the things that you are
possibly experiencing right now as you're telling your story
for the very first time. Dr. Kate.
Well, hearing everything that you've been through,
I really want to echo how brave and courageous it is
for you to come forward and talk about everything
that you have endured.
This isn't easy for survivors to do,
and I hope that both of you
hold a lot of compassion for yourselves
as you start to unpack all of this.
Do you feel better now than you did this morning?
-100%. -Yeah.
-I feel better... -Yeah.
...Telling our story.
-It's a lot to process, too. -Yeah.
Like, I'll probably go to bed tonight thinking,
oh, my gosh, and I'm gonna, like, you know,
I'm just gonna probably rethink the whole day and everything,
just to probably have anxiety, but...'cause it's hard.
-Of course it is. -It's hard to talk about.
Well, sometimes when people talk about the trauma
that they've gone through,
they can experience an emotional hangover.
-An emotional hangover. -That's amazing.
-It is, yeah. -I was just gonna say...
-Emotional hangover. -...Emotional hangover.
-That's what... -It's to be expected.
And I might encourage you to think about
getting a lot of support in the next couple of days.
You know, can you call the people you love and trust
and say, "hey, can you bring us some soup?
Can you bring us thai food?"
how do you like to be nurtured, and can you ask for that?
-I'll do that for you. -Thank you.
[laughter]
also, I think it's really important that if
there's a part of you that wants to process
how this special is received,
maybe ask a friend to read social media for you
and give it to you through a filter
so that you're not seeing those images
of what people have typed,
'cause that can lead us down a rabbit hole
of being constantly in a state of injury,
and we see the effects of that on social media all the time
with people taking their own lives
and people have significant ptsd, anxiety, and depression.
The other problem with writing something snarky about somebody
that you see on tv
is that other people are reading that tweet
or that post as well, and that has a silencing effect
on other women that might be considering coming forward.
It absolutely does.
It also creates a secondary victimization for survivors.
So when survivors are not believed,
when survivors are ridiculed, when they're harassed,
that compounds the trauma that they've experienced.
I mean, honestly, that's why I'm impressed with you,
because you've decided to come forward and share
these really traumatic experiences,
and you are such heroes for doing that.
-Thank you. -Because you'll never know
who you are impacting right this second.
What would you wanna say to the other women
that have endured what you have?
They're not alone, yeah.
And it helps to be able to tell our story,
but it is a healing process.
I just appreciate the women that are coming forward.
I appreciate hearing it.
We didn't just go through it ourselves.
It's a dark sisterhood,
but it's a lot of healing we gotta do,
so it's just gonna take time.
I am so thankful
that you wanted to come here and share your experiences
because they matter. -Thank you.
-And the truth matters. -Thank you.
-And I believe you. -Thank you very much.
Thank you.
♪♪♪
thank you for joining us.
This series was about providing a space
for women to come forward and tell their stories...
Okay.
...And bringing those stories to an audience
who was ready to listen.
We wanna thank our brave contributors
and thank you for listening.
♪♪♪
next week on "secrets of playboy,"
the whistleblowers reunite,
and a new survivor comes forward.
The fairy tale turned into a nightmare.
It went from being fun to being abusive.
This is a circle of people that expected you
to be sexually available... -Uh-huh.
-...For these men. -Day and night.
Did he have sex with you without your consent?
Yes, he did. -We really need to stop
idolizing a man who I can tell you was a rapist.
You're not getting away with this.
Whether you're dead or not,
we've never been allowed to tell our story, but it's our time.