Hugh Hefner: ‘When I Was Married I Never Cheated’

When it comes to Hugh Hefner, there’s little left he can say or do to shock us. The senior citizen spent the first few years of his 80s starring in a cable reality show which followed his polygomous relationship with three 20something models. Then, three months ago, at age 86 he tied the knot to his third wife, a woman 57 years his junior, former Playboy Playmate Crystal Harris.

Again, no real surprise there. So what stood out to us when Hef was recently interviewed by Esquire magazine? The fact the guy seems pretty committed to monogamous marriage. When asked by the writer to recall how many women he’d slept with in his lifetime, he wasn’t exactly sure, but took a guess. "How could I possibly know?" he says in the magazine’s April issue. "Over a thousand, I'm sure. There were chunks of my life when I was married, and when I was married I never cheated. But I made up for it when I wasn't married. You have to keep your hand in."

Hugh Hefner: What I’ve Learned

But these days, says Hef, he’s perfectly happy to keep his hand out and seems to be focusing on living out his days at his fabled Playboy mansion with his hot young wife.

"I want the rest of my life to be very much like it is now," Hefner says. "I want it to be like this." And why not?

"He believes in love," wife Harris tells the magazine. "Hef loves me more than anybody else in a relationship ever has. It took me time away to realize that. I think I realized that here is where I'm meant to be."
Hef says he's remained monogamous during all of his marriages. (Peter Yang/Esquire)Why those robes always look so clean. (Peter Yang/Esquire)

Hefner may be a guy who’s made his fortune off an industry selling sex … and partaken in plenty himself, but his sibling Keith, 84, offers some insight into Hef’s love-starved upbringing, one that ultimately helped mold the person he became.

"The lack of warmth and affection in our home had a tremendous impact on both of us. There was no hugging and kissing. Our mother and father were religious and strong and good puritans. I can remember as a young teenager, I was going over to pick up my buddy at his home and we were going to go wherever we were going. His mother came out on the stoop and she hugged him,” Hefner’s younger brother shares, crying during the interview. "That's what we didn't have."