Holly Madison Recalls 'Strange' Moments with Pamela Anderson Amid Hugh Hefner Relationship
Holly Madison is revealing some of the more uncomfortable moments at the Playboy Mansion, particularly involving Playboy icon Pamela Anderson.
"Interacting with Pam in the beginning was a little awkward," the 44-year-old reality TV star admitted during the Monday, October 28 episode of the Girls Next Level podcast, which she co-hosts with former Girls Next Door co-star Bridget Marquardt.
"It's not that Pam wasn't nice," she explained. "It was just that she would do this weird thing where she'd always come up to Hef [Hugh Hefner] wherever she would run into him. She'd fawn all over him and he's surrounded by all these girls."
Madison dated the late Playboy founder, Hugh Hefner, from 2001 to 2008. During this time, Hefner was also romantically involved with Marquardt, now 51, and Kendra Wilkinson — relationships famously documented on The Girls Next Door, which aired from 2006 to 2009. The reality show captured Hefner's life inside the mansion, with the final season introducing his future wife, Crystal Hefner, and twins Kristina and Karissa Shannon.
The Holly's World icon has been vocal about the "dark side of Playboy," sharing in her 2016 memoir, Down the Rabbit Hole, details of alleged verbal and emotional mistreatment by Hefner. She later described her "traumatic" first encounter with him on the Power: Hugh Hefner podcast in 2021 and called life at the mansion "cult-like" in A&E's The Secrets of Playboy in early 2022.
Hefner passed away in 2017 at the age of 91, spending his final years with Crystal, 38, whom he married in 2012.
"She would act like we did not exist on any level in such a weird way," continued the Girls Next Door alum. "It was so strange to me and the only reason I'm bringing this up is because I remember feeling like it was so strange. I wondered, 'What is that all about?' and I still kind of wonder because it would change later on. Like she would acknowledge me a little bit toward the very end."
While Madison clarified that she's a fan of the 57-year-old Baywatch star, she couldn't help but notice how Anderson's attitude contrasted with other celebrities who visited. "When I'm talking about mansion experiences, I'll talk about meeting people like Paris Hilton and how she was so nice and how she would talk to each of us girls like we were equals."
Despite the alleged chilly encounters, Madison doesn't think the Canadian actress had ill intentions. "Maybe she was at such a weird level of fame where people always wanted something from her that she shouldn't feel comfortable talking to people, or maybe she had an experience where she tried to talk to Hef's girlfriends before and it went really poorly," she speculated. "I don't know what it was, but it was so distinct and weird."
