8 of the richest Playboy Bunnies, models and girlfriends in 2024 – net worths, ranked: from Pamela Anderson, and Hugh Hefner’s ex Holly Madison, to billionaire Diane Hendricks and Blondie singer Debbie Harry | South China Morning Post
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8 of the richest Playboy Bunnies, models and girlfriends in 2024 – net worths, ranked: from Pamela Anderson, and Hugh Hefner’s ex Holly Madison, to billionaire Diane Hendricks and Blondie singer Debbie Harry

Holly Madison, Hugh Hefner, Bridget Marquardt and Kendra Wilkinson in 2008. Photo: AP Photo
Nothing seemed off-limits for the late Hugh Hefner. His racy Playboy magazine may have been launched in the 1950s, running until 2020, but it remains a cultural icon today.
Hugh Hefner, Playboy founder and editor-in-chief, displays a giant birthday cake to celebrate his 75th birthday as seven Playmates look on in Cannes, France, in 2001. Photo: Reuters

The Playboy franchise and Hefner himself may have come under plenty of criticism over the years, but the brand helped many women get a head start into fame and wealth, either by becoming a Playmate in the magazine, a Bunny who worked at the Playboy Club – or simply by being Hefner’s girlfriend. These Playboy alumni went on to produce their own reality TV shows, host podcasts, form bands – or even manage billion-dollar businesses.

So who are the ladies who made it to the top? Here are 8 of the richest Playboy models, Bunnies and girlfriends in 2024, according to Celebrity Net Worth …

8. Bridget Marquardt

Estimated net worth: US$3 million

Bridget Marquardt dated Hugh Hefner from 2001 to 2008. Photo: @bridgetmarquardt/Instagram

Marquardt, 50, dated the Playboy founder from 2001 to 2008, becoming a household name as one of his three main girlfriends. After moving out of the Mansion, she hosted Bridget’s Sexiest Beaches and later launched her podcast Ghost Magnet with Bridget Marquardt in 2019.

Bridget Marquardt plugging her podcast on Instagram. Photo: @bridgetmarquardt/Instagram

She launched another podcast Girls Next Level with fellow Playboy Bunny Holly Madison in 2022. The two former Playboy girlfriends formed a friendship while dating Hefner and living in the Mansion.

7. Kendra Wilkinson

Estimated net worth: US$6 million

Hugh Hefner and Kendra Wilkinson, who starred in reality TV show Girls Next Door. Photo: @All Girls Next Door/Facebook

Wilkinson, 38 – part of The Girls Next Door, a 2000s reality series centred around Hefner’s three main girlfriends – managed to extend her fame on the reality TV circuit after leaving the Playboy Mansion with her own shows, Kendra and Kendra on Top. She later re-emerged as a property agent and had her own show, Kendra Sells Hollywood, which ended in 2023.

Kendra Wilkinson hosted her own TV shows after leaving Playboy. Photo: @kendrawilkinson/Instagram

Wilkinson was married to former footballer Hank Baskett and the pair have two children together. Wilkinson also recently spoke about suffering from depression and anxiety, telling US Weekly that “therapy helped a lot”.

6. Holly Madison

Estimated net worth: US$16 million

Holly Madison and Hugh Hefner celebrate Playboy’s 50th Anniversary at The Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada. Photo: WireImage
Madison, 44, dated Hefner from 2001 to 2008 and was considered his main girlfriend over that period. She gained fame after starring in The Girls Next Door with Wilkinson and Marquardt, which gave fans insight into their lives at the Playboy Mansion.
Holly Madison published her memoir Down the Rabbit Hole, chronicling her time as a Playboy Bunny. Photo: @hollymadison/Instagram

After leaving the Mansion, Madison became a top selling author, writing her story about life as a Playboy Bunny, Down the Rabbit Hole. She later had her own reality show Holly’s World, starred in a burlesque show, and has a podcast with Marquardt.

Madison has spoken out about her relationship with Hefner, detailing how she felt pressured to take part in group sex with him and other women.

5. Pamela Anderson

Estimated net worth: US$20 million

Former Baywatch actress and Playboy Playmate Pamela Anderson during her guest appearance on MTV’s TRL show in Leicester Square, London, in 2004. Photo: AP Photo
Anderson made her first appearance on the cover of Playboy in 1989, later making history as the person to have had the most Playboy covers, per Us Weekly. The covers launched her career, with the blonde bombshell going on to star in Home Improvement and Baywatch, and continuing to turn heads today at events such as fashion weeks at age 56.
Pamela Anderson attends the Andreas Kronthaler for Vivienne Westwood spring/summer 2024 show during Paris Fashion Week in September 2023, in Paris, France. Photo: Getty Images

The Canadian former Playboy Playmate accumulated her wealth through her various acting, modelling and endorsement deals.

4. Barbi Benton

Estimated net worth: US$20 million

Hugh Hefner arrives at London Airport in his private DC-9 jet airliner “Big Bunny”, with his then girlfriend Barbi Benton, in 1970. Photo: Getty Images

Now 74, Benton was just 18 when she met a then 42-year-old Hefner on the set of his TV show, Playboy After Dark. The couple started dating in 1976, and she was on the cover of four Playboy magazines. In the 1970s, they moved into the Playboy Mansion together.

Barbi Benton attends the premiere of Bleed for This at Samuel Goldwyn Theatre in November 2016, in Beverly Hills, California. Photo: WireImage

She told People magazine that, as a successful singer, she was always on tour and the Playboy founder could not be single for that amount of time. Benton went on to star in comedy series Hee Haw and maintained a good relationship with Hefner.

3. Jenny McCarthy

Estimated net worth: US$25 million

US actress and former Playboy Playmate of the Year Jenny McCarthy poses at the Event to Prevent benefit concert in New York, in 2001. Photo: AFP Photo
Actress, TV host, author and activist, Jenny McCarthy, 51, got her head start into Hollywood posing nude for Playboy in 1993, with the star being named the Playmate of the Year in 1994. McCarthy has spoken about her time at the Mansion and what is was like to be part of what was known as Hefner’s “inner circle”, describing the late media icon as the person who changed her life.
Jenny McCarthy is thankful to Hugh Hefner for giving her a leg up. Photo: @jennymccarthy/Instagram

She said she was always grateful to him for “giving me the opportunity to move my parents out of a bad neighbourhood and into a good neighbourhood; pay off their debts; pay off my college loan and move to Los Angeles so I could pursue my dream”.

2. Debbie Harry

Estimated net worth: US$30 million

Debbie Harry arrives for the seventh annual VH1 Divas show at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, in 2004. Photo: Reuters

The queen of punk and feminist icon Debbie Harry, 78, actually worked as a Playboy Bunny for nine months in 1969, per Reader’s Digest.

US singer Debbie Harry and designer Zac Posen arrive for the 2021 Met Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York, in September 2021. Photo: AFP

According to the publication, Harry was waitressing at the time at Max’s Kansas City. The singer and songwriter went on to achieve major success with the band Blondie.

1. Diane Hendricks

Estimated net worth: US$21 billion

Former Playboy Bunny Diane Hendricks went on to become a billionaire. Photo: @dial911fordesign/Instagram

According to Forbes, Hendricks is worth a whopping US$20.9 billion, with the 77-year-old accumulating her wealth from building supplies. She is the chairman of ABC Supply Co., which supplies wholesale roofing, windows and other building supplies across the US.

Hendricks worked as a Playboy Bunny in the Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, Playboy Club in the late 1960s. The New York Post reported she was at the club for over a year as she tried to make enough money to support herself and her son as a single mum.

  • Back in Hefner’s heyday, he once boasted 3 girlfriends at one time – Holly Madison, Bridget Marquardt and Kendra Wilkinson – who lived with him at the infamous Mansion and appeared on The Girls Next Door
  • Anderson made history as the person with the most Playboy covers while Diane Hendricks once made ends meet by working as a Bunny; meanwhile, Jenny McCarthy got her head start posing nude in 1993