Marston Hefner Calls Crystal Hefner a ‘Master Manipulator'

Marston Hefner has made some damning claims about Crystal Hefner, the wife of his late father Hugh Hefner, saying she took advantage of the Playboy mogul at the time of his death.

During a Monday, May 13, appearance on the “Girls Next Level” podcast with Holly Madison and Bridget Marquardt, Marston, 34, theorized that Crystal, 38, “might be a master manipulator” who wanted to be Hugh’s “only girlfriend.”

“When Crystal came in, there started to be tribes,” Marston said. “There were people that were on Crystal’s team.”

Crystal married Hugh in 2012 and the pair remained together until Hugh’s death at age 91 in 2017 due to sepsis.

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After Crystal entered the Playboy Mansion, Marston said she became obsessed with “the idea of control and power.” Marston explained, “She liked being in that position where you had to go through her or you had to ask her for things.”

That desire, Marston said, played out with Crystal having the final say on who was able to come and go from the mansion.

“She liked controlling the guest list,” he said. “She liked taking girls off and on the guest list pending on whatever the whims were at the time.”

Marston said that people who had been regular guests for “10 years, 15 years” were suddenly exiled. “You knew to be a little scared sometimes, to not get on her bad side,” Marston noted.

Crystal’s alleged gatekeeping even extended after Hugh’s death.

“I have heard that Crystal controlled the guest list for the funeral,” Marston said. “I don’t know if that’s true. But whoever was in charge of the guest list for my father’s funeral, shame on you. There were people there who I’ve never seen in my entire life.”

He continued, “There were people filming us on their iPhones documenting our grief.”

Prior to his father’s death, Marston said Hugh had gotten “really sick,” which led to Crystal taking some allegedly questionable actions.

“That’s why she got all these NDA things,” Marston recalled. “According to her, she didn’t want people to see him not able to walk, not able to talk.”

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As Hugh struggled with severe back pain, Marston said his father was “dosed with f–king medication.” He compared Hugh’s situation to the relationship between Michael Jackson and his doctor Conrad Murray, who was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in Jackson’s death.

“People can’t say no to these people,” he explained. “They didn’t say no, so they f–kin’ doped him up whenever he wanted to get doped up. He wasn’t here. He was so doped up he didn’t know what was going on.”

Marston further alleged that Crystal used his father’s fragile mental state to oversee changes to his will, ensuring she received more money after his death. He questioned, “If you’re trying to protect your husband, would you let him dramatically change his finances when he’s not there?”

In Crystal’s new book, Only Say Good Things: Surviving Playboy and Finding Myself, she claimed otherwise, writing that Hugh left her nothing.

But Marston doesn’t buy it.

“It’s so bizarre,” he said. “Because it would be easy to say, ‘Thanks, Hugh Hefner, for helping me build this amazing life that I have.’”

Us Weekly has reached out to Crystal’s reps for comment.