When you think of the Playboy Mansion you probably think of women dressed as bunnies, but growing up in the iconic house gave one woman a different view.
It was the late Hugh Hefner‘s s ex haven and since moving in in 1971, he has put up dozens, if not hundreds, of women in his Los Angeles estate.
But while most of these were young ladies were less than a third of his age, in the later years anyway, one was an 11-year-old girl who, now in her 50s, has recounted her experience to the UK’s Channel 4 film crew.
A documentary titled Secrets of Playboy features comments from Jennifer Saginor, who was only in middle school when she moved in with dad Mark Saginor – the Playboy magazine founder’s doctor, known as ‘Dr Feelgood’.
Speaking to the crew, she said: “Hef would kiss with his mouth open in sort of a French kiss sort of way. I always thought it was strange that someone who was like my uncle would kiss like that – but my father told me that’s what people do when they love each other.”
But it was five years previously, when Saginor was only six, that she saw the palace and remembered it as a ‘magical kingdom’.
Playboy bunny Sheila Levell, Playboy founder Hugh Hefner and Playboy bunny Holly Madison pictured in 2003. (Robert Mora/Getty Images)
She continued: “It’s taken me a long time to unravel what I experienced growing up and how I feel.”
Having been introduced, or ‘initiated’ as she put it, into the media mogul’s world at such a young age she explained how she developed a ‘sense of loyalty’ to the ‘inner circle’ and knew that if she broke that loyalty there would be ‘serious consequences’.
Adding: “It was such a weird f**ked up place.”
Recounting the horrors that no young girl should encounter, she released a book in 2004 titled Playground: A Childhood Lost Inside the Playboy Mansion.
Saginor even referred to Hefner, who died six years ago at the age of 91, as ‘Uncle Hef’ who would do anything for her, but it was in her later teenage years that things took a turn for the worst.
While she grew up in what her book referenced as a ‘Playground’, she began to fall for one of his girlfriend’s and slept with her while still a child, claiming that Hefner was aware of this due to cameras installed ‘everywhere’ throughout the house.
Jennifer Saginor speaks with a Channel 4 film crew as part of its Secrets of Playboy documentary. (Channel 4)
So when she turned 17, she claims that Hefner, who she always saw as a father figure, called her to his room where she found him and the girlfriend she fell for in his bed.
In response to the Channel 4 documentary, a Playboy spokesperson said: “We trust and validate women and their stories and strongly support the individuals who have come forward to share their experiences in this documentary.
“After almost 70 years in business, there are many elements of Playboy’s long history which we are immensely proud and there are elements we find unworthy of our principles.
“We are proud of the work we have done in recent years to stand for freedom and equality while advancing our mission of pleasure for all.”