Crystal Hefner Is Putting Her Playboy Past Behind Her for Good With This Drastic Move

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Crystal Hefner has been associated with the Playboy brand for most of her adult life after marrying the late Hugh Hefner in 2012. While life behind the Playboy Mansion walls was often romanticized in the media, she is sharing what a nightmare it was for her in her new memoir, Only Say Good Things: Surviving Playboy and Finding Myself. Now, the 37-year-old model is ready to take her story back — and she’s making a big move to separate herself from Hugh’s legacy.

Crystal is appearing on an upcoming episode of the Miss Understood podcast, hosted by Rachel Uchitel, and she is making some big moves in her life. After she married Hef, Crystal no longer had a say in her last name — it was changed from “Harris” to “Hefner” by the Playboy founder’s secretary. Now that she’s had time to process her less-than-happy union with Hugh, she wants her name back for good. 

“For the last five years before writing the book, I just hid out. So, I wasn’t really around people to talk about it or really dive into it,” she explained, via The Blast. “But since the book has come out, now, it’s something that I’m internally thinking about. I don’t want to be Hefner. I’m done with that. I’ve closed the book now that I’ve written it and I feel like my name needs to go back to what it originally was.” Crystal wants her power back and she’s ready to reclaim her last name!

The author revealed to People how Hugh dictated her beauty regimen while she lived at the mansion which was something she thought “was all normal.” She started to believe that his orders on how she looked meant she was “beautiful in Hef’s eyes.” From maintaining the Playboy Bunny bleach-blonde color to wearing only “neutral” nail polish, Crystal rarely had any say in how she could dress, look, and act — it was a stifling relationship.

“I realized I was dealing with a really big power imbalance,” Crystal told Uchitel. “It seemed like a world of success and fantasy, but everyone’s having to sleep with an 80-year-old. There’s a price. Everything has a price.” So, if you run into Crystal sometime soon, remember she’s a Harris, not a Hefner.

Before you go, click here to see all the celebrity women who have posed for Playboy.