Hugh Hefner’s son Marston launched a scathing attack on Crystal Hefner, accusing her of being a “master manipulator” – and even appeared to suggest she took advantage of the Playboy mogul before he died.
Marston, 34, made a series of damning claims about his father’s widow on the Girls Next Level podcast, suggesting the 38-year-old was determined to gain power and oversaw changes to his father’s will when he was mentally vulnerable.
Speaking to presenters Holly Madison and Bridget Marquardt on Monday, he said: ‘When Crystal came in [to the mansion]tribes began to emerge. And so there were people who were on Crystal’s team.”
He said she became addicted to the “idea of control and power” and would decide who could and could not enter.
Marston Hefner made a series of damning claims about his father’s widow, Crystal, on the Girls Next Level podcast, suggesting she was determined to gain power (pictured with Hugh Hefner)
Marston (left), 34, accused Crystal of being a ‘master manipulator’ – and appeared to suggest she took advantage of the Playboy mogul before he died (pictured with his brother Cooper)
“She loved checking the guest list,” he said. “She liked to pick up girls and put them on the guest list, depending on how, whatever the whims of the time were… She liked being in that position where you had to go through her or her had to ask for things.’
Marston, who welcomed a child with his wife last year, also accused Crystal of disrupting the fun he had with his father during game night at the mansion where they played Uno, claiming she had a “dark energy’ that kept him from ever returning.
Her alleged obsession with control seemed to extend to issues of Hugh’s will, with Marston suggesting that Crystal oversaw changes when his father was ‘sick’ and put on ‘bloody drugs’, which he claims the businessman was unaware of of his environment.
“He was really sick and that’s why she got all those NDAs,” he said. “According to her, she didn’t want people to see that he couldn’t walk, couldn’t talk.”
Marston, whose mother is model Kimberley Conrad, said his father would struggle to remember how to play backgammon with him because of the strong medication for his back pain.
“The year he died, he changed the will and gave me, another person and Crystal more money,” he said. “And I don’t know how much more, I can’t remember if Crystal has more than us…
“I looked at it when I got the inheritance, and I thought, ‘Why? If he wasn’t there, if he didn’t know what the hell was going on half the time, why?’ would he change his will?”
He continued, “And so I sent an email saying, ‘I don’t think he’s competent anymore, guys, can we agree on this?’ And no one really wanted to address what I saw as the elephant in the room.
Marston questioned some of Crystal’s claims in her memoir Only Say Good Things: Surviving Playboy And Finding Myself — as well as her motivation for writing it.
Marston and his brother Cooper, pictured with their father Hugh and mother Kimberley Conrad in 1998
Masrston (pictured with his wife) accused Crystal of bringing a “dark energy” to his father’s famous game nights, and as a result he never returned
Crystal, pictured right, was the Playboy founder’s last wife – pictured with Kristina and Karissa Shannon at Hugh’s 83rd birthday party in 2009
“And more than that, why would anyone change their damn will when they can’t play their favorite thing and don’t know where they are? Why do people let that happen?’
Crystal famously married the magazine publisher in 2012, when she was 26 and he was 86. They were married until his death, aged 91, in 2017 due to heart failure and blood poisoning after he contracted a fatal form of e-coli. He left behind a fortune of $43 million.
Earlier this year, she published her explosive memoir, Only Say Good Things: Surviving Playboy And Finding Myself, in which she made a number of bombshell claims, including that she never loved the late magazine mogul and that she felt trapped in their four-year marriage.
Marston revealed how he sent Holly and Bridget a message, calling Crystal a “master manipulator” after reading her book, and questioning some of her claims – as well as her motivation for writing the memoir.
He suggested she buy Instagram followers and asked, “If you’re not interested in fame, why are you buying Instagram followers?”
Crystal (pictured with Hugh on his 84th birthday in 2010) made a series of explosive claims about the infamous libertine in her memoir
“If you’re not after money, why was she busy being Crystal DJ Hefner? And she said she was building a real estate empire, but she was building one as Hefner. So I think she had to be there to build it.”
Marston, who runs an OnlyFans account to fund his love of collecting Pokémon cards and rare comic books, then accused Crystal of Hugh buying her a property against the advice of his accountants.
“I heard it was way over his budget,” Marston continued. ‘It wasn’t wise. And I heard his financial advisors say, “Don’t buy this, dude. You can’t afford this….”
‘And he said, “I love this person and I’m going to…” These are my own subjective feelings: why would you ask your husband, who is in debt, to buy you a mansion that he can’t really to buy? afford it if you don’t need the money?’
DailyMail.com has contacted Crystal representatives for comment.
Crystal was Hugh’s third wife. He married her in 2012, two years after his divorce from Kimberley was finalized.
They were married for 21 years starting in 1989 and also share son Cooper, 32.
His first wife was Millie Williams with whom he had children Christie and David.