EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
CRYSTAL HEFNER
SEVEN YEARS AFTER LIFE IN THE PLAYBOY MANSION
ON FINDING HERSELF, SETTING BOUNDARIES AND FALLING IN LOVE ONCE MORE
When Crystal Hefner tentatively dipped her toe back into the dating pool following the death seven years ago of her husband, Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, she was asked by a matchmaker: “What do you like?”
“I froze,” Crystal tells HELLO!.. “I thought: ‘What do I like? I don’t even know.’ I’d spent so much time liking everything Hef liked – doing everything he wanted to do, being his shadow and mirroring his selfimportance back to him.
“I had to take a break to find out what I liked.”
And what did she discover? “That I like being around nature and that I’m introverted. I like small groups of friends I feel really close to.
“I like spending time with my dog and I don’t like being in Hollywood,” she continues.
“In learning what I liked, I found myself.”
THE GILDED AGE
Crystal was 21 and a psychology student and part-time model when she met the publishing tycoon – 60 years her senior – who would become her husband.