“If I have a problem with someone, I’ll go to the person and talk to them. Obviously they just want attention,” Crystal said, before also addressing Hugh Hefner’s son Marston’s recent comments about her, including calling her a “master manipulator.”
Crystal Hefner is speaking out after Holly Madison, Bridget Marquardt, and Marston Hefner made a series of accusations about her alleged behavior during her marriage to Hugh Hefner and after his death.
In an interview with Us Weekly for its latest cover story, the former Playmate — who was married to Hugh from 2012 to his death in 2017 — called out Holly and Bridget over the claims they made on a recent episode of her Girls Next Level podcast, accusing the two of reigniting their feud and trying to “sabotage” and “pull apart [her] life.”
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Marston Hefner Calls Crystal Hefner ‘Master Manipulator,’ Opens Up About Father’s Will
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“If I have a problem with someone, I’ll go to the person and talk to them. Obviously they just want attention,” Crystal, 38, said, adding that she believed everything was good between her and Marston, who is the son of Hugh and his second wife, Kimberly Conrad.
While appearing on the May 12 episode of the Girls Next Level podcast, Marston, 34, suggested that his stepmother “might be a master manipulator,” and claimed she enjoyed “the idea of control and power.”
He also alleged that Crystal “liked controlling the guest list” at the Playboy Mansion, claiming she would take “longtime guests off the lists,” even people who had been there for “10 years, 15 years.”
“You knew to be a little scared sometimes, to not get on her bad side,” Marston said.
According to Crystal, Hugh was the “king of the castle [and] whoever he wanted to see, that’s who he was around.”
“Sometimes when a woman speaks up, she’s called harsh — especially by people who no longer benefit from her staying quiet — and controlling by people who can no longer control her,” she told Us Weekly.
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Crystal also addressed Marston’s claims that she “controlled” the guest list for Hugh’s funeral and there were people he’d “never seen” in his “entire life.” (In her book, Only Say Good Things: Surviving Playboy and Finding Myself, Crystal said the funeral was “tiny” and consisted of just her, her mother, as well as Hef’s secretary, head of security, doctor and kids.)
“I invited his close friends and his office. I’m the one who watched Hugh die; they didn’t,” Crystal told Us Weekly. “Marston came by, but [his kids] weren’t with him 24-7.
“I was married to him. I was closest to Hef,” she added of Hugh, who died in September 2017 at 91 from sepsis.
Crystal went on to weigh in on one of Marston’s biggest claims from the podcast, in which he alleged that Hugh “changed” his will the year he passed away, with the new document leaving him, “another person” and Crystal “more money.”
Marston also recalled his shock that his father was allowed to make changes to his will despite his alleged mental state at the time, saying that he even sent an email writing that he didn’t believe his dad was “competent” at the time.
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“I was like, ‘Why, when he wasn’t here, when he didn’t know what the f–k was up or down half the time, why would he change his will?'” he said on the podcast, to which Holly noted that she found that to be “very creepy” and “suspect.”
According to Crystal, her late husband had an estate attorney, telling Us Weekly, “Whatever Hef decided to do or change, that’s up to him.”
As for Marston’s claims that Hugh was “dosed with f–king medication,” Crystal said she “wanted him to be on as least as possible of any of that type of thing” as she tries not to take prescription medication herself.
She also hit back at Marston’s comments about Hugh’s alleged mental state, claiming that her husband was “very sharp.”
“I mean, it’s sad to discredit this person that has one of the highest IQs in the world and just created this entire empire,” Crystal said. “And then saying that he’s not credible, it’s like nothing got past him.”
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Holly Madison Accuses Crystal Hefner of Copying Aspects of Her Playboy Mansion Memoir
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“I feel that obviously he has a lot of pain and hurt still from the relationship or lack thereof with his father,” she added of Marston. “And there are some things I think he’s trying to heal or get answers to that he’s realizing may never be answered. So maybe he’s filling in the blanks themselves.”
Crystal said that she spoke to Marston in the wake of the podcast episode, telling Us Weekly that he “backpedaled” on some of his comments and claims. “I still see him as family,” she said, claiming that Marston “has a lot of pain and hurt” as he looks back on his relationship with his father.
As for Holly and Bridget, Crystal shared that she talked to the two as well after she listened to the episode, expressing her hopes that they can one day have a proper conversation and ultimately become friends.
“I hope we can all heal and get along. I don’t hold grudges,” she said. “When you’re happy and feeling good, you don’t wish any ill will toward anyone.”
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