Key Points
Crystal Harris says she regrets her five-year marriage to Playboy founder Hugh Hefner.
Harris shared in a social media video that she regrets “the years I spent making myself smaller so his world could feel bigger,” but is still “grateful for the woman I became on the other side of it.”
Comedian Jon Lovitz criticized Harris in the comments of her post, asking if she regrets “the house he bought for you to live in, after his death?”
Crystal Harris is looking back on the dark side of her marriage to notorious Playboy founder Hugh Hefner — and the silver lining after coming out the other side.
“Do I regret marrying Hugh Hefner? Of course I do,” Harris shared in a video posted to her Instagram on Tuesday. Harris starred in the final season of The Girls Next Door, from 2009 to 2010, married Hefner in 2012, and remained with the mogul until his death at 91 in 2017.
Though Harris detailed the ins and outs of her time with Hef in the 2024 memoir Only Say Good Things: Surviving Playboy and Finding Myself, the model turned realtor got candid about their five years together in Tuesday’s video.
“I regret being in my mid-20s and thinking that marrying one of the most famous men in the world meant I had finally made it, that I finally mattered or had value,” Harris explained. “I regret the years I spent making myself smaller so his world could feel bigger. I regret learning to stay quiet when I could have spoken. I regret the version of myself that I had to abandon just to survive in that environment. I regret that it took me as long as it did to understand what was actually happening — like, years.”
Harris continued to elaborate that people “never expected” her to speak out about the relationship, to instead “stay in the story that was written for me, the grateful young wife, the lucky girl. But I’m done living in that story. Yes, I regret it, and saying that out loud is one of the most honest things I’ve ever done.”
With all that on the table, Harris insisted that her past isn’t dominated only by regrets. “That’s not because of where it brought me,” she said. “I’m grateful for the woman I became on the other side of it. But yes, I regret it.”
The comments on Harris’ video filled up with sympathetic fans and supporters, many who had their own stories of troublesome relationships to share. But one famous name took exception to Harris’ perspective on her own life — Jon Lovitz, who was a close friend of Hefner’s, and even attended his wedding to Harris.
“Do you regret the house he bought for you to live in, after his death? And keeping the money, after you sold it? And all the times your mother was at the mansion? And do you regret all he did for you? And do you regret leaving him and then coming back to marry him?” Lovitz wrote.
Within hours, Lovitz’s comment merited over 50 replies from commenters criticizing his own critique. “Let the woman live and tell her own story. This isn’t about you,” read one characteristic reply.
Entertainment Weekly has reached out to representatives for Lovitz and Harris for comment.
Karissa Shannon, Crystal Harris, and Kristina Shannon in Beverly Hills, Calif., in 2009
Credit: Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic
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A cascade of allegations against Hefner followed his 2017 death. He was accused of rape by former Playmate Susie Krabacher in the 2022 docuseries Secrets of Playboy. Other former Playmates and girlfriends of Hefner alleged harrowing experiences with the mogul. Playboy backed the accusers up, stating in an open letter published at the time, “We trust and validate these women and their stories and we strongly support those individuals who have come forward to share their experiences.”
Harris told her own story in her 2024 memoir. “A lot of women that have been in Hef’s orbit, they’ve lost their sparkle… It has caused people trauma,” she told PEOPLE after its publication. Harris claimed she watched Hefner fill disposable cameras up with “rolls and rolls of potential blackmail, if he ever wanted to use it that way,” adding, “We were disposable too.”
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