Hugh Hefner's Widow Makes Startling Claim About Playboy Founder's Scrapbooks

Playboy founder Hugh Hefner's widow, Crystal Hefner, just made unsettling claims about her late husband's personal scrapbooks, which she claims are now in the possession of the Hugh M. Hefner Foundation.

Crystal, alongside celebrity attorney Gloria Allred, held a news conference in which they called for a regulatory investigation into the foundation over the scrapbooks. She claimed the foundation has nearly 3,000 of the Playboy founder's personal scrapbooks.

Crystal claimed the books have thousands of racy images, depicting nudity and sexual activity — potentially even with minors and with women who were intoxicated. “The materials span decades beginning in the 1960s. And may include images of girls who were underage at the time and could not consent to how their images would be retained or controlled,” she said. “They may also contain images of women who did not consent to their images being taken in the first place.”

“Crystal did not consent to having her intimate images stored by and accessible to the foundation," Allred said, "and we believe that many of the other women and or girls depicted did not consent either."

According to Crystal, the foundation intended to scan and digitize the scrapbooks, which prompted her to have concerns about a potential data breach. She went on to note that these were not images taken for the magazine, but personal images that "chronicled private moments that took place behind closed doors."

She added, "I am deeply worried about these images getting out. Artificial intelligence, deep fakes, digital scanning, online marketplaces, and data breaches mean that once images leave secure custody, the harm is irreversible. A single security failure could devastate thousands of lives."

Crystal served as the foundation's CEO and president until she was "unilaterally removed" over her complaints about the scrapbooks. “The concerns I raised about consent, safety, and security were ignored," she said.