holly madison down the rabbit hole series

Season six, without its original stars, was a massive flop. Fast forward a few seasons Holly, Bridget and Kendra had all left the house, and been replaced by Crystal (now Hef’s wife) and the Shannon twins. I find it terrifying that in 2005, these women were being basically kept as possessions, treated as nothing more than replaceable arm candy – and a massive TV company was not just allowing it to happen, but helping it to happen! None of these three women earned an income from this massive TV show until season 2 when it became apparent it was a hit. The biggest shock in this book for me was the realisation that neither Holly, Kendra nor Bridget Marquardt were actually paid for the first season of Girls Next Door. When they brought this fact up with the producer from the TV Channel, E!, they were basically told, this is a show about Hef’s girlfriends, not you as people. Meanwhile, the girlfriends are all going out, seeing other boyfriends on the side, sneering at Hef behind his back, and being mean to Holly. The book paints Hugh Hefner (or “Hef” as he’s known, seemingly by everyone) as a manipulative, controlling man who delights in setting his girlfriends against each other in a “divide and conquer” sort of way. A large chunk of the book is taken up with her time living with Hugh Hefner, first as one of seven girlfriends, and then as his main girlfriend. She doesn’t go into some self indulgent story of her childhood she gets straight to the point. What I love about this book is that Holly clearly knows why people will be buying it.

Holly’s response was something along the lines of “in all the time I knew her, I never once saw her read a book so I think I’m safe.” I initially became interested in the book when I read an article where someone had asked Holly if she was worried about ex co-star Kendra Wilkinson reading what she’d said about her in the book.

I bought a copy of Down the Rabbit Hole by Holly Madison and decided to review it when I realised just how interested everyone else seemed to be! I had naively thought that watching Girls of the Playboy Mansion (originally titled Girls Next Door in the US) was my own dirty little secret – but it turns out a lot of my friends used to watch it too, and lots of them were intrigued to see what secrets Holly spilled in her book!

Holly madison down the rabbit hole series