Hugh Hefner's Ex-Girlfriend Claims She Was Groomed By Him At 19
Sondra Theodore has spoken out about the porn magnate's predatory behaviour
Hugh Hefner's ex-girlfriend has claimed he 'groomed' her when she was a teenager.
Sondra Theodore has spoken out about the porn magnate's predatory behaviour, including how he would host wild orgies at his mansion and push women to take drugs.
In the new gripping documentary, Secrets of Playboy, she and other women who dated Hefner, who died in 2017, have revealed what it was really like living with the larger-than-life figure.
And speaking to the New York Post, Theodore, now 65, said she was target by him when she was just 19 years old.
She told the publication: "He groomed me and twisted my mind into thinking his way was normal.
"He introduced me to drugs. I’d never had a drink or a drug before going up to the Playboy Mansion.
"And my first night there I was handed champagne and the drugs came later, and I was underage."
Among these other drugs reportedly were Quaaludes, a prescription drug that acts as a sedative and used to treat insomnia and anxiety.
Speaking about the experience of taking them herself, Theodore recalled: "Everything felt good to touch and soft focus and it was lovely.
"Usually you just took a half. If you took two you passed out.
"The men knew that they could get girls to do just about anything they wanted if they gave them a Quaalude."
And it was for this reason that Hefner used to refer to them as 'leg-spreaders'.
His former secretary Lisa Loving Barrett said: "Quaaludes were what we called leg-spreaders. That was the whole point of them.
"They were a necessary evil, if you will, to the partying."
Drugs were so widespread at the mansion that a pet poodle ended up becoming a cocaine addict.
Theodore says in the new doc: "There was drugs everywhere. John Dante was Hef’s best friend and Dante had a dog, Louis, who was a tiny poodle [who] got hooked on cocaine.
"The dog could smell it from across the room."
She continued: "A very famous person walked into the house one night and that little dog jumped off the couch like super dog, flew to that person and was licking her up the nose.
"And she goes '[This dog] just loves me'... and we are all going 'yeah sure'.
"[We] knew why that dog was on her. He had to lock that dog up when people were around because he was addicted to cocaine."
Secrets of Playboy premieres today (24 January) on A&E.
Featured Image Credit: AlamyTopics: Playboy, Hugh Hefner, US News
Dominic Smithers