Holly Madison Accuses Crystal Hefner of Copying Her Playboy Mansion Memoir

While appearing on the LadyGang podcast the 44-year-old former Playboy model said it “drives me up the wall.”

“Anybody who’s read my book that came out eight years ago and then read her book, tell me the narrative voice doesn’t sound exactly the same,” she claimed to the hosts.

Madison’s memoir, Down The Rabbit Hole, was released in June 2015 and revealed the dark side of her experience in the Playboy Mansion. While Crystal released her book Only Say Good Things earlier this year in January, opening up about her own time with Hugh Hefner.

Despite Madison admitting on the podcast that she did expect to have a similar experience with Hefner she was upset their writing styles — which both included “fairy tale references” and “psychological catchphrases” — were also similar.

“When I say narrative voice I don’t mean… Like of course were going to be writing a lot about the same things, we dated the same person, we might even come to some of the same conclusions, I was reading it and there was some times I was like, ‘I feel like I’m reading my own book,'” Madison claimed.

“I’m weirded out by it, especially since she had a ghostwriter,” Madison said. “Like, do your research and don’t copy.”

Madison then references her former Playboy Mansion housemate, Kendra Wilkinson who also wrote a book about life in the mansion, Sliding Into Home. Wilkinson and Madison also appeared on the reality show The Girls Next Door together which took viewers beyond the gates of the world-famous mansion.

“If you take my book and Kendra’s book, it’s two completely different people, even though we lived there at the same time, it’s two completely different voices as it should be, so I’m weirded out by it,” Madison said.

Writing styles and Hugh Hefner aren’t the only things the two former bunnies shared, they also had some of the same publishing team who worked on their books.

“You would have thought that it went through somebody reading it that would be like, ‘That’s a little bit too similar,'” she said.

“I’m supportive of her telling her story,” Madison emphasized. “I think we probably went through a lot of the same things in that relationship and a lot of it’s been very relieving for me to hear, even before her book came out when she talks about feeling like she always felt like she had to walk on egg shells or always felt like she was going to have the rug pulled out from her,” she said, before reiterating that the similar narrative voice “bothers” her especially because she was the first to reveal her experience.

“It’s always hard to come out and tell your story first, especially when you’re crucified for it,” she admitted.

“When my book came out [Hugh] was still alive, it was before the Me Too movement went mainstream… The book was very successful, but I got dragged. Now it’s a little bit easier for other people to come out and share their stories.”

Both Madison and Crystal dated the late Playboy founder throughout their time in the Mansion.

Madison was Hugh’s girlfriend — and also became his “first girlfriend” — from 2001 to 2008. She moved out of the mansion the following year.

Crystal then dated Hugh in 2009, the pair then tied the knot in 2012 and remained married until the 91-year-old died in 2017.