Marston Hefner Calls Crystal Hefner ‘Master Manipulator,’ Opens Up About Father’s Will

While appearing on Monday’s episode of Holly Madison and Bridget Marquardt’s Girls Next Level podcast, the 34-year-old — who is the son of Hugh and his second wife Kimberly Conrad — shared his thoughts on Crystal’s relationship and marriage to Hugh in the wake of the release of her book, Only Say Good Things: Surviving Playboy and Finding Myself, earlier this year.

Crystal began dating Hugh, who was 60 years her senior, in 2009. The couple tied the knot in 2012, and stayed married until Hugh’s death in 2017.

During the interview, Marston suggested that Crystal “might be a master manipulator,” and said she wanted to be Hugh’s “only girlfriend.”

“When Crystal came in, there started to be tribes. There were people that were on Crystal’s team,” he said, claiming Crystal enjoyed “the idea of control and power.”

“She liked being in that position where you had to go through her or you had to ask her for things. … She liked controlling the guest list,” Marston continued. “She liked taking girls off and on the guest list depending on whatever the whims were at the time.”

He later claimed that Crystal would take longtime guests off the lists, even people who had been there for “10 years, 15 years.”

“You knew to be a little scared sometimes, to not get on her bad side,” Marston said.

He also claimed he “heard” Crystal “controlled” the guest list for Hugh’s funeral.

“I don’t know if that’s true. But whoever was in charge of the guest list for my father’s funeral, shame on you. There were people there who I’ve never seen in my entire life,” he explained. “There were people filming us on their iPhones documenting our grief.”

In her book, Crystal said the funeral was “tiny” and consisted of just her, her mother, as well as Hef’s secretary, head of security, doctor and kids.

Marston also claimed Crystal made people sign NDAs in the years when Hugh was “really sick” prior to his death.

“According to her, she didn’t want people to see him not able to walk, not able to talk,” he said, before adding that his father suffered from “really bad back pain” and was “dosed with f–king medication.”

“People can’t say no to these people,” he explained. “They didn’t say no, so they f–kin’ doped him up whenever he wanted to get doped up. He wasn’t here. He was so doped up he didn’t know what was going on.”

Crystal also wrote about Hef’s alleged “addiction to pills” in her book. She added that, eventually, “people around him got more careful” after a number of celebrity ODs, and his pills were doled out “in controlled doses.

Marston later claimed that his father “changed” his will the year he passed away, with the new document leaving him, “another person” and Crystal “more money.” Marston also recalled his shock that his father was allowed to make changes to his will despite his alleged mental state at the time.

“I was like, ‘Why, when he wasn’t here, when he didn’t know what the f–k was up or down half the time, why would he change his will?'” he said, to which Holly said that she found that to be “very creepy” and “suspect.”

Marston claimed he sent an email saying that he didn’t believe his dad was “competent” at the time, and no one wanted to “address” the “elephant in the room.”

“If you’re trying to protect your husband, would you let him dramatically change his finances when he’s not there?” he asked.

In her book, Crystal said the couple’s prenup “stripped me of any claim to his millions, which would go to his children.” She did add, however, that Hefner “managed to set aside one of his smaller accounts for me, his Playboy retirement fund,” as well as property. She wrote that maybe he “fought so hard at the very end of his life to leave me something” because she “didn’t ask for it,” while “everyone else was always asking him for stuff.”

TooFab has reached out to Crystal for comment.

Marson admitted that Crystal is someone who he “trusted” and did “really like,” pointing out that he had a “really nice time” when he appeared on Crystal’s podcast, Beneath The Surface With Crystal Hefner in December.

At the time, Marston applauded his father’s generosity, noting that he left a sizable amount of money for both Crystal and his children, including Marston’s siblings, Cooper, Christie and David. “I get it completely,” Marston said. “We were so fortunate. What he left us, the inheritance, he didn’t have to do that. That says something about his character too.”

“Yeah, he wanted to make sure everybody was good,” Crystal agreed.

Marston added, “He really did. Especially you. He really wanted to make sure you were gonna be happy and safe, and you were gonna have a good life.”

While Crystal has yet to comment on Marston’s claims from the Girls Next Level podcast, she did address remarks Holly made about Crystal’s engagement to Hugh.

Crystal and Hefner got engaged in December 2010, but the former called off the engagement five days before their planned wedding in June 2011. They later reconciled and married the following year. On the podcast, Holly claimed Crystal ended her engagement to Hugh last minute “because she was unhappy with the prenup.”

Crystal shut down Holly’s claim in a statement to Us Weekly.

“This isn’t even true,” she said. “When I came back I signed the exact same thing. I don’t know how she can credibly comment on something she wasn’t around for and has no idea about. I wish she would stop picking on me.”