Welcome to an unofficial fan page for the Girls Next Level Podcast, hosted by Holly Madison and Bridget Marquardt! We are a community of diverse individuals that are here to discuss the podcast, the early 2000s reality show Girls Next Door, and anything Playboy or Y2K adjacent. Please note: we are NOT a snark or hate-watching sub
Crystal
Listening to today’s podcast, Holly, Bridget, and Marston all seemed to cast doubt on how Crystal earned enough money to purchase 8 Los Angeles properties while living at the mansion.
They criticized her presenting herself as a “girl boss” and “building an empire” and seemed to imply that the money came straight from Hef.
I don’t like Crystal at all, but I had an issue with this. I don’t think it’s all that mysterious how Crystal built her property portfolio or earned money.
To me, it seemed like all 3 of them- Holly, Bridget, and Marston, were just jealous of Crystal possibly making wise financial investments that grew her portfolio, and maybe bitter about their own perceived lack of financial success.
When Crystal was on the Bethenny Frankel podcast, Bethenny was astounded that Crystal managed to become a millionaire while living with Hef. Bethenny said something like “I need you to explain exactly how you did that, step by step!”
So Crystal explained. She seemed very uncomfortable but she explained, and gave numbers.
She said that she got a job DJ’ing once per week in Vegas and that she was paid $7,500 per gig. She said that she promoted detox teas on Instagram, once or twice a week. She said she was paid thousands per post, and quoted the $7,500 figure again. She said Hef had no idea she was making money from Instagram and she hid it from him.
She said before on a couple different podcasts that the allowance was originally $1k per week but that it was raised to $2k per week and then raised again. I don’t remember her giving a number for what it was raised to at its highest, she seemed evasive about that.
I believe that unlike Holly and Bridget, but similar to Kendra, Crystal was in fact allowed to do club appearances for money. I don’t know how much she made from those so I’m not even going to include that in the calculations.
But even just with those 3 income streams- $2k per week allowance, $7.5k per week DJ’ing, $7.5k per week Instagram sponsorships- that is $17k per week!!! This is $884,000 per year, and presumably she would have been earning this for at least several years. She was at the mansion for a long time. She wouldn’t have been earning this much every year, but she could have for a few years.
This is absolutely enough money to purchase multiple LA homes, one at a time, over several years! Furthermore, I believe Crystal’s mother was a real estate agent long before the mansion. I remember seeing on a website Crystal said that she also got her real estate license. I don’t know if this is true but this is what she claims. I don’t think Crystal was selling homes to clients or anything but I can believe she had some knowledge of real estate.
Holly said in the episode “I took a class in real estate investment at UCLA, and I know she wouldn’t have been able to buy those properties herself, blah blah blah.” I know Holly brings up this online class constantly and fancies herself a real estate expert, but she is not the only person who knows about real estate! If both Crystal and her mom had real estate licenses, presumably they also knew a thing or two.
Holly purchased her first investment property after a few years of living at the mansion. She bought a property in her hometown in small town Oregon. Crystal’s first property was in Los Angeles. Obviously a Los Angeles property is going to appreciate much faster than a property in a small town in Oregon. Presumably the house could have increased in value by several hundred thousand dollars in just a few years.
I’m just saying- it’s not that far fetched that Crystal could have built a property empire through her own good decisions. I agree with a LOT of the criticisms of Crystal, but not this one.
By the way, Bridget bought a Los Angeles house after moving out of the mansion, lived there for many years, and eventually sold it at a loss. This was surprising to me. You’d think after that 10+ years it would have gone up in value, especially in a city like Los Angeles, but apparently she bought high and sold low. I don’t think Bridget has real estate savvy, so it’s obviously easy for her to criticize Crystal and downplay her achievement.
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I think after HBK left, Hef was much older and possibly even desperate to not be alone, so Crystal was able to get away with more. It’s not fair but it’s not Crystal’s fault. I think Holly did well given her situation. She was the star of the show which was unprecedented. She was a photo editor at the magazine. After the mansion she parlayed it into two books and a Vegas show. This is probably more than other #1 girlfriends were able to create for themselves.
I agree with you, Holly did amazingly well for herself and turned lemons into lemonade! I think Peepshow is her most impressive achievement because she helped pioneer a new industry of stars performing in Vegas. She doesn’t say this very often but she literally earned multiple millions of dollars performing in Vegas- there are articles about her contracts.
I do think that Hef held Holly on a particularly tight leash, whereas other girlfriends like Crystal (and Kendra) were allowed much more freedom and money making opportunities. I don’t think we should hold it against them for making the most with what they were given.
i didnt take it as them saying she couldnt have possibly earned the money - it was more that crystal insists she earned it 100% independently from hef. but all those things you just listed were dependent on her being crystal hefner. which is FINE! but she refutes that notion
I 100% agree with you @zuesk134. I think that’s the main point missed here by OP. Is that no one said she didn’t do it on her own, it’s the fact she wouldn’t have made it this far without the last name Hefner. Which again, she refutes. She claims she didn’t need his last name to get what she has… which is….well…. We all know BS. She needed that last name to be successful in anything other than the simple weekly allowance. She can have that one but she can’t sit back and say that her last name didn’t get her everything else she had. (I truly think that was the only point he was trying to make on the podcast). That’s just my opinion though. She was just a normal Joe prior.
That’s the impression I got as well
I agree with you, but I think both things can be true!
Of course, she only got any of these opportunities from the clout associated with being Hef’s girlfriend/wife!
But I also think it’s what she did with those opportunities and where and how she invested her money that was smart.
Rather than just taking the money and living off it frugally, slowly letting it dwindle away for years (which seems to be what Bridget has done?) she wisely invested it and made it grow.
Bridget has no money worries. She’s worth $3M which I’d gladly take, lol. Plus her boyfriend (or husband, not sure which) Nick Carpenter, is a multi millionaire Hollywood producer, grandson of Hal Roach. She’s set.
I think both things can be true, that she did make money but also was looked after at the mansion. She wouldn’t have had all those experiences without being Hugh Hefners girlfriend/fiancee/wife. She was smart with her money but also built it on the back of being in a relationship with a wealthy old man (and all power to her, not having a dig). What I took away from the podcast in what Marston was saying (in his opinion) was Crystal has continually stated she didn’t want fame or money, but also she got a lot of out of the relationship during and after. I don’t think they were implying she didn’t make money on her own accord, just that the way she goes about the retelling of history isn’t right (again in their own opinion)
To be honest, it would be a hard pill to swallow knowing that someone walked away with so much and now they’re going “poor me” (speaking from their perspective)
Anyways, they all have a nice amount money, so it must be nice in this economy because I don’t know how that feels 👀
Also adding, it’s been said by different people, that there is a lot of contradictions but that is also said about others apart of the playboy family so I don’t think we’ll ever know what’s really true because everyone seems to have opinions in that world
Has anyone seen any promo materials/posters/etc from Crystal's dj-ing jobs? That might help with the calculations.
I can't really blame Holly and Bridget for being a bit upset- Kendra and Crystal were both allowed to work while in the mansion, whereas Holly and Bridget have a big gap in their resumes and weren't able to make the most of their fame at that time. That isn't fair, but that's really only Hef's fault.
I live in Vegas and kinda remember the era she was here. I didn’t do the math on this post, but she probably had a spring/summer residency and wasn’t actually DJing every week of the year
That makes sense. A Vegas celebrity residency gig could earn her a lot of money in a very short time.
I meant that it might not have been as lucrative as the poster is assuming because she wasn’t DJing the entire year. I also don’t think people were flocking to see her DJ. A lot of places hire people like her (with somewhat of a name) to seem bigger/busier than they actually are.
That's true- that's what Paris Hilton's DJ jobs are, too. The reality of Crystal's money situation might be halfway between Holly and Bridget's view and what Crystal is saying- Crystal probably earned some money DJ-ing, but also saved and invested some of her allowance from Hef.
I actually agree with you that the DJ’ing gig probably wasn’t the whole year! But remember I also underestimated her earnings in other ways, such as I didn’t count at all club appearances, which everyone says earned a lot. I wouldn’t even want to speculate actual numbers because no one has been very candid about saying what those were, but if I had to guess, I’d guess a range of $10k-$75k per appearance. Also, I capped her weekly allowance with Hef at $2k, even though it rose higher than that.
I think the point was she couldn’t have done it on the normal allowance, Hef was giving her more money, which allowed her to make her own money. He also was funding her DJ career and flying her back and forth.
Their point is - own that your name and husband made you a millionaire and is allowing you to live the life you are now. She’s presenting it as - she’s living this life IN SPITE of her “horrible” time at the mansion and she did it all on her own. Her narrative and personality are both fake as fuck.
I agree I don’t think it’s far fetched she “earned” her own money for a while. if her stories about instagram tea and DJing are real. She’s basically been exposed as a compulsive liar so I’m not sure if anything she says.
I have to disagree when folks say Holly specifically is jealous. I wouldn’t be if I were her. She married and had kids with a gorgeous man who’s worth probably 5x hefs worth…the dude is the ceo of the biggest events company in the world…sure she’s divorced but her kids are set for life. She clearly isn’t price sensitive like Bridget is. I think that’s a better life than the shambles of a tattered reputation and waning assets hef left behind.
I agree that she doesn’t have a reason to be jealous but imo it’s pretty obvious that she is. Too much energy spent on this.
Yeah I just don’t see it. Maybe im projecting because I’m “jealous” of holly and for some reason her life seems ideal to me. who really wants to be married when you can have a rich ex husband taking care of the bills? I feel like she’s spending energy on this partially because the podcasts makes a ton of money and this is good juicy content ensuring they’ll never run out. It’s been two years and they’re still creeeping thru season 2.
yea i don't think Holly is jealous either. she's only talking about this because of the podcast. i think if she's jealous of anything it'll be that Crystal didn't get anywhere near as much hate and backlash that she did. and in Holly's view, she didn't do all the "bad" things Crystal did (like stop people from seeing Hef, requiring NDAs, possibly changing the will, etc). i think if there's any bitterness from Holly it's because of this and not because she wishes she had Hef the way Crystal did.
I agree with you that Holly turned out to have a pretty amazing life! Holly earned millions doing Peepshow, which is a fact that is often overlooked, but extremely impressive!!
Nevertheless, I still think it’s possible for her to be jealous of Crystal’s property portfolio specifically, and unable to accept that Crystal made some good investments! (I mean, Crystal owns a lychee farm in Hawaii- as someone who doesn’t like Crystal at all, even I have to admit that’s pretty cool! Give credit where credit is due.)
Maybe. A quick search showed that Pasquale’s LA home sold for $10M, he’s estimated to be worth up to $140M-$50M. Their home in Vegas looks like a legit mansion with a massive park as a backyard. She said she bought a house down the street so the kids can walk back and forth. I feel like her proximity to her ex alone makes her a very very set woman. she’s admitted to not taking alimony from him but her kids will probably inherit more than the Hefner kids received. When the kids are taken care of what other major expenses does she even have? I feel like crystals lychee farm is laughable compared to the insomniac empire that Hollys ex owns.
I have no idea what the Hawaiian lychee farm is worth monetarily, I just think that it sounds like a cool property to own! She said there were waterfalls on the land too… I’m no Crystal fan but I respect the hustle!
I think you're right. Despite Holly's own successes, I think she's generally jealous when people find success in the things she envisioned for herself. Crystal bears the brunt of that, effectively being Holly's replacement who secured the bag, was allowed outside income and is savvy with real estate. I'm sure if Crystal was fluent in French or cared about animals, we'd hear how "fake" that was too.
I think it's natural, but she needs to really let it go. She has a beautiful life, thanks in part to her marriage but also her own hard work.
I don’t think Hollys jealous but I do think she is obsessed. Holly has talked more about Crystal than Crystal has ever talked about her. Hell at this point she is starting to talk more shit about Crystal than she has about Kendra
Because the real question is how is Bridget earning money? How much is that ghost podcast really paying? That’s what I was waiting to hear about.
I don’t think she needs to work. Her husband is the grandson of Hollywood royalty one of the most important directors in Hollywood history. She seems frugal and price conscious compared to Holly so they prob scrap it together as a couple so she doesn’t really need an income
I keep hearing different things about her husband and am now so confused lol
And I totallyyyyyyy agree!
The one question I have !
Like is she not a girl boss because she has a husband?
I think your framing is wrong. They’re not saying she didn’t become a multi-millionaire through investing, they’re saying she had a massive advantage through her association with Hef. The girl boss connotation implies that “anyone can do this” - just go out and hustle and make your own money etc. It ignores the fact that Crystal got a massive leg-up via money from Hef and associated gigs (she wouldn’t have DJed if she was not at the mansion and associated with Playboy).
So the criticism stems from Crystal not recognizing that a lot of the groundwork was laid for her - through the work of the previous Girls Next Door (who expanded the Playboy brand and made it more valuable) and through Hef (who was more desperate and open to giving Crystal money).
That’s why the suggestion that Crystal independently created her own real estate empire is seen as disingenuous. It’s not because people doubt the ability to parlay lots of cash into multiple properties.
You’re not wrong! Like I said in another comment- both things can be true.
Of course it’s true that she only got these moneymaking opportunities through her association with Hef.
But it can ALSO be true that she made wise investments with the money and made her nest egg grow.
Sure, but I don’t think that was the criticism.
Imagine being so peeved that Crystal refuses to not give herself credit. Sure his money and name helped. His fame helped but like who cares. Why does she have to admit it? And to WHO? You???? For Holly and Bridget? Even if she did admit it they’d still find ways to hate on her for being cold and “bad energy”. As if living in a stinky mansion with the same boring routine is “good energy” lol
If Bridget bought a nice place to live in at the height of the late 00’s real estate bubble, that would explain her experience. The decision making process of buying a property because you need a home to live in is very, very different from buying a property as an investment.
If Crystal was picking up distressed properties in the wake of the bubble bursting/the Great Recession, fixing them up and putting renters in until the time was right to sell, she could have made out like a bandit. If her mom is a realtor, she could get the inside scoop on properties other people might not.
I know it really must sting for Holly to have put in all the work, only to have someone else “inherit” the empire, if only in name. I think in the end, Holly was more love with Playboy than Hef. Maybe she believes she could have evolved it with the times, brought it back to its former glory, who knows?
Crystal put her time in. She got Hef when he was in decline and maybe she could get away with more, but she also spent her twenties cooped up in a piss smelling, dank old house taking care of a man old enough to be her great grandpa, without the opportunities the earlier girlfriends had.
Overall, Holly got the better deal. She is the one everyone remembers. She got all these opportunities in entertainment Crystal did not. Even though her marriage did not work out, she did far, far better than Hef, who could not give her the children she wanted. I do not get the impression Holly is struggling financially, quite the opposite.
Hef did not choose Crystal over her, Holly left. And maybe he made different choices so that Crystal wouldn’t leave. I have an ex who made very different choices with the girlfriend after me, because of me. People would ask me if that made me angry or upset, but I LEFT. And to my ex’s credit, he was trying to NOT make the same mistakes again. I didn’t see it as a slight to me, but personal growth for him.
I agree with everything you said! I also agree that buying a property to live in is different from buying an investment property.
Nevertheless, it really surprised me that after 10 years of living in a beautiful house in a desired area of LA, Bridget sold her house at a loss. This seems either extremely unlucky, or extremely poor business sense. Maybe both.
Just the other week on the podcast, Elvira was lamenting selling her house to Brad Pitt for $1.7 million because it increased to $32 million 30 years later. Property prices in LA generally go up over time, significantly, especially if you hold onto them for a long time.
Crystal's DJ gigs did come straight from Hef. Who do you think paid for the private plane, the staff, and etc for "her" DJ gigs? Who do you think got her hired at them? Most of her DJ gigs were Playboy events.
And of course, her allowance came straight from Hef. Are you thinking it came from somewhere else?
I never thought of this lowkey. They’re mad crystal played the game the best out of all of them
Yes this ! 💯
It was annoying when Holly was like took a class at ucla in real estate. Like what? Lol that's great but class room experience vs first hand experiences? Not the same
I just think- Holly is educated but someone who actually has a real estate license would ALSO have to read a book and study real estate! My understanding is that the test is hard- you can’t just sit down and wing it, you need to study. So if Crystal and her mom both have their real estate licenses, that says something to me. To my knowledge, Holly does not have a real estate license.
Those numbers and jobs make sense. That's a good hustle. You are right that she deserves credit for this.
Thank you! Yup, the math checks out. Also keep in mind that she was probably earning even more than the $884k with club appearance fees.
Sara Underwood recently talked on the podcast about how after she won Playmate of the Year she hustled hard to earn as much money as she could for the following year, and did personal club appearances, even though it pissed off Playboy Promotions that she was doing things on her own.
I don’t think anyone begrudges the women for capitalizing off their financial success- if anything, it’s something to admire!
Also there was a huge real estate crash in 2008, it would have been a lot easier then to purchase houses around here girls next door run
How did they all afford to buy investment properties while still living at the mansion with a weekly they budget that they were forced to spend? Why is it Crystal is being questioned when they all did the same?
Good point!
I also find it interesting that Holly and Crystal are similar in the sense that both of them hid their investment properties from Hef.
Holly says she flew to Oregon for a day trip with Sara Underwood, who was from the neighboring town. They both met up with their mothers and a real estate agent and looked at houses. Holly picked out a house that same day and flew back. She says she never told Hef about making the house purchase because he wouldn’t have liked it.
Crystal says something similar. She says she met with a lawyer, started an LLC in the lawyer’s name, and used the LLC to purchase the Los Angeles property. She went to great lengths to not have her name attached to it! (I wonder how she was able to do this because normally you need 2 years of tax returns, even for an LLC, but perhaps she made an all-cash offer instead of getting a mortgage? I’m sure a clever lawyer could figure it out.)
She too said that she hid the house purchase from Hef because he wouldn’t have liked it.
Maybe Holly didn’t have a conversation about it with Hef, but I don’t think it was a secret. She talks about it openly in DVD commentary.
I also found her story about driving by the old Playboy studio very sus. Like, she just told that story as some weird flex that she worked for Playboy and owned a condo before crystal.
That was very odd. Go after filming if you want to walk down memory lane, don’t make your cohost and guest wait around and worry!
i thought it was weird too, and it's not like she "accidentally" came across the studio, she must have been aware she will be nearby since planning this studio recording.
i assumed she cut something out of that story bc it didnt make sense? she was like i have a story! but it was just her driving somewhere?
I agree that it’s plausible. It’s really starting to sound bitter on Holly’s side, almost like she feels that Crystal got what she deserved instead, or a perception of unfairness because Hef changed some rules after Holly left. Almost as if she’s upset for not getting second-hand credit. Definitely giving gatekeeping vibes.
And the snark about Crystal being a ‘fake girlboss with a real estate empire’ and how she doesn’t attribute it to Hef as this ‘gotcha’ slight…to me is another double-standard where they ignore or overlook their own gains.
Holly did have opportunities that were because of Hef. Not only cash, travel, surgeries, and GND promotions but some media/paid appearances, product lines (perfume, jewelry, tube socks), subscription membership to her website, endorsements, her own spin-off and Dancing with the Stars gig were due to Hef/Kevin Burns/E. To me, there isn’t a lot of difference between that and Crystal saving money, making investments, posting sponcon and giving interviews.
Holly also touts her own real estate investments (house in Oregon), tv shows, and author endeavours, highlighting that she did it all without Hef/in spite of her association with Playboy, and while none of it negates the hard work and effort she put into them, ultimately those successes and opportunities were still because of her connections to Hef and Playboy (and the finanacial benefits) which is exactly the same thing they are dragging Crystal for!
It seems that it’s a bit of resentment that Crystal did it better, or that she feels that she sacrificed more in order to get less. But to me the trade-off of living with a dying man heading a declining empire who had exclusively transactional relationships is not worth this level of pile-on towards Crystal. Like I don’t find her particularly interesting but their experiences are so similar it’s just bizarre to see this level of negative fixation.
Very very very good point!!! It’s absolutely true and even Marston said it himself in the episode.
Someone wrote a snarky response to my comment elsewhere in this thread saying something like “Crystal wasn’t hired to DJ because of her great personality!” Well do you think Holly was hired for Dancing With the Stars because of her great personality? 😂 Would Bridget have been able to host a travel network show without having been on Girls Next Door? Do you think Bridget Sandmeier from Lodi would have gotten hired to be a TV host without her experience with Playboy? 😂 Holly and Bridget had opportunities open up because of Hef/Playboy/GND. But they worked hard to maximize those opportunities- it’s what they did with those opportunities that mattered.
Holly has always emphasized how hard she worked. She talks about constantly pestering Dancing With the Stars so that they’d keep her in mind when someone else got injured. She talks about actively pitching her own reality show. She wrote in her book about the extensive audition process for Peepshow and how she cleverly promoted the show to turn a 3 month run into a 4 year residency! Holly makes it very clear that nothing was handed to her.
Isn’t it fathomable that Crystal also hustled and worked hard? She hustled promoting those detox teas on Instagram. She hustled going to Vegas each week to DJ. She saw opportunities to make money and she took them. She hustled to start a private LLC and invest in buying and selling property. Just let her have her wins.
Also, they criticise her keeping her name as Hefner but like if anything that's her giving the biggest credit to him ? Like she's clearly using it to her advantage but at the same time publicly indicating that her success is due to the Hefner name.
Not that this matters, but I think it's important to understand that real estate is a long game. Many investors are lucky to break even, if at all. Sure, homes generally appreciate over time, but usually that is in a much longer time period until it become advantageous. The market overall has been pretty volatile in the last few years, but LA/CA in general is a hotbed for volatility and stiff property taxes (esp. as investements, rental homes do not get very many get tax breaks). And, lest we forget, she would still be paying mortages and there are down payments, maintenance, HOAs, property management fees, the list goes on. Again, a lot of investors are lucky to break even in the short term. The real money rolls in when the mortage is paid off. Granted, she bought at a great time and selling even a few properties now would be a great ROI, depending on how she structured the sale(s). If I were to guess, I'd say she's cash poor but property rich. Hence, her book with the Hefner name attached even though she "doesn't want to use it anymore and it has nothing to do with her overall success". SMH. I can see her investing with the money she received after the probate of Hef's Will. THAT would have been very smart.
My point is, it's pretty shocking to accrue that many homes in such a short period of time when starting from scratch and with little to no credit to your name. Do I think she has business savy and real estate acumen? Sure (barring her music career and that sad little lingerie shop). Do I think she's opportunistic to her advantage? Absolutely (and good for her). Also, Kendra and the twins both allude to making a lot of money as club guest stars...I have a feeling that those girls weren't the saving/investing kind, unfortunately.
But do I think all those down payments, etc came solely from her income outside of the mansion/Hef? Meh. The jury's out on that one...
Oh, and I do not believe for one second that money wasn't involved between the McGraw family and Crystal. And have we forgotten? Crystal shamelessly tried to pawn her engagement ring that Hef gave her. If that's not "entrepreneurship", I dunno what is!
lol totally. And Holly taking UCLA real estate classes stopped the moment GND was a full blown success. Like congrats you read a book but it’s not like you ever got your license babe.
$884k is BEFORE taxes too. I wonder how much she took home after taxes to buy these investment properties. I may not be a tax pro, but I wonder if someone who is a tax pro could tell us approximately how much she took home.