Jennifer Saginor describes growing up at the Playboy Mansion (2024)

Gumballs from the game room, feeding the monkeys in the private zoo and a very early introduction to p*rn: this is what growing up at the Playboy Mansion was like.

From the age of six, Jennifer Saginor, now 51, spent her childhood at the infamous LA party spot and had a room of her own in the 29-bedroom mansion from the age of 12.

Now, Saginor tells DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview: 'In my head, it was the most magical, Disneyland environment that a kid could ask for. I used to run into the game room and shove gumballs in my pocket.

'I'd go to the Grotto and be watching people when they didn't know I was there and swimming into the tunnel from the Grotto to the pool and just really, I just had so many different adventures.'

But, she explains, 'as the years went on, I didn't realize some of the boundaries being crossed by the adults would be something that would affect me for years to come.'

Saginor, who has written a memoir called Playground about her childhood, says Playboy boss Hugh Hefner was like an 'uncle' and would have his butlers cater to her every whim, whether a cheeseburger for lunch or a ride to school in the Playboy limo.

The reason was her father: Dr. Mark Saginor, Hef's personal physician and close friend who was nicknamed 'Dr. Feelgood' due to his propensity for dishing out prescription pills.

She describes how he encouraged Saginor and her sister to embrace nudity, took her clubbing at 15, and kept three jars filled with pills in the kitchen of the Beverly Hills family home labeled 'uppers', 'downers' and 'quaaludes'.

But most of their time was spent at the mansion, exposing the glamorous blonde to shenanigans that included naked parties, parades of p*rn stars such as Ron Jeremy constantly in the home and big screen TVs that showed erotica on a loop.

Saginor is now set to star in an A&E documentary due out in September detailing her unusual childhood at the mansion – and the addiction battle that followed after she became hooked on prescription meds in her teens.

Appearing in the documentary alongside Saginor will be Jackie Hatten, 48, who became a regular at the Playboy Mansion in the early 2000s thanks to her best friend: Anna Nicole Smith.

Like Saginor, who made her final visit to the mansion in 2010 just before she entered rehab, Hatten describes a whirlwind of louche glamor, outrageous parties and catty competitiveness among the girls.

Saginor, who had a fling with one of Hef's girlfriends as a teenager, said there was always an element of competition but that it hit new heights during the noughties.

At the time, Hef was dating Holly Madison, Kendra Wilkinson, and Bridget Marquardt who later became famous thanks to E! reality show, The Girls Next Door.

Although Saginor says she was allowed to do whatever she liked at the Mansion while growing up there, both women said Hef's harem of playmates were expected to follow the rules.

The rules, which were outlined in a contract signed by all of the playmates, included staying slim and agreeing to regular weigh-ins, abiding by a 9pm curfew and a driving ban.

More arcane rules included avoiding eating cookies from a special jar that only Hef could touch and agreeing to sex with the Playboy supremo and his friends.

In exchange, the women were given an allowance of $1,000 a week.

Saginor and Hatten said the girls would jockey for position – all aiming to get closer to Hef and the prize of becoming his number one girlfriend and sharing his bedroom.

Madison, in particular, became a pro at exploiting the rules and would regularly tell tales to Hef about other girls who broke them.

'Being Hef's girlfriends in the inner circle, it was a competitive environment, catty, and I'm sure like being in a sorority in some ways,' Saginor said.

'It became a running joke that Holly was the narc. The narc that would narc on these other girls and get them in trouble if they for instance ate Hef's personal cookies.

'He had these cookies that were just for him and no one was supposed to eat them.

'Or when Kendra started dating Hank. She dated him for a few months and it was Holly who mentioned to Hef that Kendra was dating Hank.

'Fortunately, Hef reacted in a positive way and Kendra was able to ask to have her wedding on the grounds which was unusual because usually, if someone broke a contract, they were thrown out.'

Hatten tells another story about how she and three playmate friends were on a shoot in Malibu with noughties band Crazytown when one discovered she was being booted out of the Mansion after Madison told Hef she had put a pair of his famous satin pajamas on Ebay.

'Regina got a call saying she had been told on by Holly for taking some of Hef's PJs, the satin PJs, so she got in trouble and got diced out of the mix,' she said.

'That was one of the things everyone got so upset about – that Holly would get people in trouble by telling on them.'

Both say they have happy memories of Hef, who died in 2017, and the wild parties he famously threw.

Hatten said: 'The mansion was always super-fun, a lot of different interesting people and I was in the industry too, so I had a lot in common with many of them.'

Saginor added: 'Living in the Playboy Mansion, for sure it was a very glamorous, fast paced lifestyle.

'There was lots of drugs, lots of glitter and women and fun parties. Of course, there was a lot of sex. It was a hedonistic environment.

'Holly and Kendra came on the scene and they were active participants, along with a lot of other women. These are willing participants, of course.

'Nobody was forcing them to do anything.

'This was a free, fun loving other environment and if not, there's the door. There were a million Hollys waiting to take her place.'

For her own part, Saginor has mixed memories of her upbringing and says a Playboy Mansion childhood is not what she would choose for her own child.

In 2005, she wrote a book called Playground about her childhood and says she now has a more clear-headed perspective on Mansion life than she did then.

She said: 'The way I feel about Hef today is very different from how I felt growing up or even when I wrote the book because I wasn't sober, I wasn't clear-headed.

'Even today, it's still taking me a long time to understand that this environment that had no boundaries wasn't healthy or typical for a woman who wants to feel good about herself or support other women.

'It just wasn't that kind of place. I don't blame Hef for the environment he created because the rules were very clear – they were set forth in a contract from the beginning.'

The author added: 'The way I saw Hef was as an uncle, as a second father figure. He was always very kind to me, very generous.

'I had a room there and he encouraged me to see the mansion as a second home and for that I'm very grateful.

'As I grew up into my teens, of course that was the only world I ever knew. For me, I think now having some perspective, I can see some of the situations weren't appropriate for a child but at the time I didn't know any different.'