Lorraine Nicholson Was ‘Constantly Vigilant’ at Playboy Mansion Growing Up: ‘Not Intended for Children’

For Lorraine Nicholson, visiting the Playboy Mansion as a child was in many ways like a fantasy, but there was always the possibility that she might see something she shouldn’t.

In a recent essay for vanity fairThe 33-year-old writer-director and daughter of actor Jack Nicholson and model Rebecca Broussard offered a behind-the-scenes look at her experience at the famous Los Angeles mansion.

Lorraine often visited the extravagant mansion once owned by the deceased Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner, during his childhood. But being a kid at the Mansion, she said, was like a “Streater at Disneyland.”

“You destroyed the magic,” Lorraine wrote in the text.

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Playboy Mansion.

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Lorraine would visit the castle with her nanny Cis, who previously worked as Hefner’s social secretary. And while she could order whatever she wanted during her visit, she said she “always only ordered mashed potatoes and peas.”

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Friend Kimberley Conrad, who was married to Hefner from 1989 to 2010, would usually watch the children at the mansion using a security camera, Lorraine said. She and Hefner have two sons, Marston and Cooper.

Lorraine Nicholson.

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As they got older, Lorraine said, “the boys got curious and would sneak out – looking for what I was afraid to ask.”

“I knew the palace was not meant for children, but I didn’t ask any questions. I couldn’t be less curious about sex or sexuality,” the director recalled. “I was constantly on guard, in fear of being exposed to something I shouldn’t have seen.”

“I never considered the question Playboy, although they remained in every room. I never questioned the original purpose of the mirrorless room in the playhouse – or why each bathroom had its own selection of vaseline and wipes,” she added.

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Lorraine noted that she “rarely stayed in the palace after dark,” but noted that it was “not because there was anything terrible going on, but because it was boring.”

“Adults would fight to sit next to Hef,” she wrote. “The kids were mostly ignored because we didn’t have an opinion about the censorship or the hypocrisy of American sexuality.”

However, Lorraine said she had a “quiet respect for the magic” of the fairy when she was a child, even comparing it to the “magical” worlds she saw in Disney films.

Playboy Mansion.

Michael Tran/FilmMagic

However, not everyone had such positive things to say about life in the Playboy mansion.

In the memoirs of Crystal Hefner Say only good things: surviving Playboy and finding yourselfHefner’s widow said that when she first crossed the threshold as a 21-year-old aspiring model with a degree in psychology, the mansion was run down and a bit tacky.

“It was like a time capsule from the ’70s,” Crystal wrote. “It’s like Hef pushed a break at the height of his prime and never unfroze it.”

At first, living in a mansion didn’t seem so bad. “This was a beautiful Tudor English home — and my family is from England — on five acres in the middle of LA,” she previously told PEOPLE. “But over time I saw that this place was not being cleaned very well and that there was mold. After a while I felt shabby and disgusting.”

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Source: HIS Education