Crystal Hefner Claims the Birds at the Playboy Mansion Were Dying of Thirst and the Zoo Animals Were ‘Depressed’

Crystal Hefner did not like how the animals were treated during her stay at the Playboy Mansion.

In his memoirs Say only good things: surviving Playboy and finding yourself, the widow of Hugh Hefner (37), claimed that the birds in the Playboy mansion are dying of thirst due to negligence. And in an interview with PEOPLE, she expanded on her thoughts, stating that the abuse extended to other wild animals in cages.

“So sad those little birds,” Crystal said in an interview with PEOPLE. “Yeah, I feel like I’m constantly crying for everything and everyone there. It was so sad.”

She went on to say that there was a zoo in the mansion (“Hef had a permit for a zoo”), but she claimed that the animals were not paid attention to – much like some of the women who live in the house.

Crystal Hefner Reveals She Was Never ‘In Love’ With Hugh — And Details Playboy Mansion Life In Book (Exclusive)

Hugh Hefner and Crystal Hefner attend the annual Halloween Bash at the Playboy Mansion on October 25, 2014 in Los Angeles, California.

Charley Gallay/Getty

“All these animals were so depressed and sad looking, you walk by the cages and just none of them were happy,” Crystal said.

“It was all an illusion,” she added of her time in the villa. “It’s very strange. I’m surprised. I don’t even know if I was happy, to be honest.”

She previously shared with PEOPLE that many of the women who were part of Hugh Hefner’s former harem are still picking up the pieces after his death in 2017.

“A lot of the women who were in Hef’s orbit lost their luster,” Crystal told PEOPLE. “It traumatized people.”

Crystal Hefner Backs Holly Madison, Kendra Wilkinson, Says Playboy Lifestyle ‘Traumatized’ (Exclusive)

Playboy Mansion 2015.

Michael Tran/FilmMagic

In her book, Crystal revealed several sordid details about Hefner’s actions at the Playboy Mansion, including that Hefner took thousands of photos of other women who were in the mansion, along with compromising photos of his ex-girlfriend Holly Madison. She said he always carried a disposable camera with him and took pictures of women everywhere.

“We were disposable too. I watched those cameras fill up with the most incriminating images,” she wrote. “Rolls and rolls of potential blackmail, if he ever wanted to use it that way.”

She also revealed that he had strict rules about everything, right down to having his girlfriends come to him every week to collect his “pocket money” which he distributed in stingy bills. He also controlled their appearance.

For more on Crystal Hefner, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE magazine, on newsstands now, or subscribe here.

“Our nail polish couldn’t be anything but a neutral color, without a French manicure,” Crystal shared. She also said that she will show her roots whenever her natural brown hair grows out.

“So I’d have to bleach it and my scalp would burn and I’d have blisters,” she said. “But for some reason I thought it was all normal and that it meant being seen as beautiful in Hef’s eyes.”

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Source: HIS Education