Secrets of Playboy

Hugh Hefner sold himself as a champion of free speech who created the Playboy brand to set off a sexual revolution that would liberate men and women alike, but over the years he used Playboy to manipulate women to compete for his favor and silenced whistleblowers.

Playboy hired the most attractive women in the world by promising an environment where they would always be protected, but outside of the Playboy Mansion, the Bunnies faced dangers and abuses that were covered up by the Playboy “cleanup crew.”

After decades of silence, Hefners former number one girlfriend Sondra Theodore shares her story detailing how she was groomed by him to participate in his increasingly abusive sex life. Sondras testimony shines a spotlight on Hefners mechanisms for controlling and breaking women.

A roundtable of Playmates recount how decades of women modelled for the magazine because they believed that becoming a Playmate would lead to a lucrative career in a safe environment; instead, many faced a hostile environment.

During the 1990s, Playmates, including Pamela Anderson and Anna Nicole Smith, reach peak fame and young women flock to Los Angeles in hopes of being the next centerfold; men in Hefners inner circle set up shadow mansions where women are exploited.

Former girlfriends of Hugh Hefner Karissa and Kristina Shannon, discuss their experience with Hefner and the hit television series "The Girls Next Door," which introduced a new generation to Hefner and the Playboy lifestyle. Telling their emotional story for the first time, Karissa and Kristina reveal that beneath the sugar-coated exterior was a darker world led by Hefner with increasingly stricter rules designed to control the women in order to maintain the Playboy image.

Thousands of women across the nation vied for the chance to become a Playmate, but only 12 were chosen for the reality competition "Who Wants to Be a Playboy Centerfold?" The two-hour prime-time special aired on Fox in 2002, bringing together aspiring Playmates in typical house reality show fashion. Photo shoots at the Playboy Mansion and a nude centerfold layout culminated in eliminations and, ultimately, a winner, whose prize was to become the Playmate of the Month. Contestants share what the show was truly like, how the experience changed them, and how being associated with Playboy fulfilled dreams and also caused heartache.

In 1977 Playboy introduced pictorials featuring often barely-legal college women. Playboy went to university campuses across the country and hosted auditions for female students to pose and represent their school. While some of these women jumped at the chance to audition, others protested the magazines presence on campus. For those that were selected, the choice to pose for Playboy sometimes resulted in unanticipated, far reaching consequences, in their personal lives and their careers.

Posing for Playboy seems like a dream come true for many young women, but the allure of fame and fortune comes with a steep price: their bodies become commodities, their choices are restricted by a company that seeks to profit from their sexuality, and sometimes instead of opening doors for the women, it closes them.

Playboy has long been known for its pictorials of working women. Perhaps none of these features were more tantalizing to their readers than those of women in uniform. Playboy cover model and investigative journalist Lisa Guerrero sits down with a former NYPD officer and a former US Air Force Training Instructor to discuss the highs, and lows, of their fateful decision to pose.