Playboy founder Hugh Hefner dies aged 91

Playboy founder Hugh Hefner dies aged 91



Hugh Hefner has passed away aged 91. The Playboy founder died peacefully at this home surrounded by his loved ones. The 91-year-old has had declining health in the last year and has not been seen in public for some time. A rep for Playboy Enterprises told People: Hugh M. Hefner, the American icon who in 1953 introduced the world to Playboy magazine and built the company into one of the most recognizable American global brands in history, peacefully passed away today from natural causes at his home, The Playboy Mansion, surrounded by loved ones.’

Hugh founded the Playboy magazine in 1953 with Marilyn Monroe as the cover star. It later featured Cindy Crawford, Pamela Anderson, Madonna and Sharon Stone, among others. He famously owned the Playboy mansion, which he sold in 2016 for $100m. Hugh managed to turn the magazine into a multimillion-dollar empire, which at the peak of its popularity in the 1970s included TV shows, a jazz festival and a number of Playboy clubs.

The brand was also instrumental to the sexual revolution in America during the 1960s, which contributed to the societal shift in attitudes towards sex. ‘I would like to be remembered as somebody who has changed the world in some positive way, in a social, sexual sense, and I’d be very happy with that,’ Hefner said to CNN.

‘I’m a kid who dreamed the dreams and made them come true.’ Along with being renowned for its sexual content, the magazine also earned respect by featuring lengthy interviews with figures like John Lennon, Martin Luther King Jr. and a notorious interview with Jimmy Carter during his 1976 campaign to become president.

Hefner suffered a minor stroke in 1985, and stepped down as CEO from the company and granted the title to his daughter, Christie. In 1989,  Hefner married former Playmate Of The Year Kimberley Conrad, 26, who had two children together, sons Marston Glenn and Cooper Bradford. The pair split in 1998, and Hefner later married third wife Crystal Harris, 26, in 2012 at the Playboy Mansion.