Three's Company: The Girls Next Door
For most of us, the Playboy Mansion seems like too much of a bizarre fantasy world for anyone to call home. With wild parties, a staff that rivals that of the West Wing, flocks of exotic birds and bodies that challenge the laws of physics roaming the premises, it’s hard to imagine what life would be like if this was your everyday reality. But for Holly Madison, Bridget Marquardt and Kendra Wilkinson, this is just another day on the homestead. When we were offered an exclusive shoot with the stars of the E! hit The Girls Next Door at the mansion, we couldn’t help but be a little curious. Join us as we go behind the gates of one of the most infamous landmarks in all of Los Angeles and meet the girlfriends of legendary Playboy founder Hugh Hefner.
BRIDGET MARQUARDT
Some people grow up wanting to become an astronaut or a journalist, a teacher or a vet. Bridget Marquardt always wanted to be in the pages of Playboy. But don’t judge this girlfriend by her cover. Now that she’s accomplished that goal, brainy Bridget intends to use her Girl Next Door status to reach new horizons.
Raised in small town Northern California, Marquardt recalls that “My dad got the magazine and I would peek at them. I wasn’t weirded out by the nudity. I just thought the women looked really beautiful, and I wanted to be like that someday.” When the time was right, Marquardt came to LA to follow her dream and test for Playmate. A year and a half later, she discovered she hadn’t made the cut. Unshaken, she finished her masters degree in communications, took her life savings and moved out to Los Angeles to take another swing. “I didn’t want to live my life thinking ‘I don’t know if I could have made it,’” she says, “So I auditioned for commercials, movies, trying to do anything with Playboy that I possibly could.” Of course, having auditioned once she already had a foot in the door of the mansion, and after attending a few parties, she was invited out by Hef. Six months later, she moved into the mansion and has been loving it ever since.
So how exactly does this whole “Hef having three girlfriends” thing work? “We’re all three in a relationship with Hef. But Hef and Holly are the main relationship – they share a room together they’ve talked about having a baby together. And then Kendra and I are just the icing on the cake.” Marquardt explains everything with such pure, infectious excitement, it’s easy to see why her and the Peter Pan-like Hef would get along so well. “Hef’s a kid at heart. He loves to play games, he loves to go to the club, he’d rather eat candy than dinner, which I love.”
After yearning for celebrity for so long, landing The Girls Next Door show was a ticket to ride for Marquardt. Like everyone, she was initially a little surprised by the success of the series among female viewers but can understand the appeal, “We live a fun, fantasy lifestyle, getting our hair and make-up done, living in a mansion, going out to crazy parties, getting to shop and travel. And I think a lot of women like to live vicariously through us.”
Perhaps the biggest perk for Marquardt is all the extra-curricular opportunities that the success of the show has provided. “First of all, my dream came true and I got to be in Playboy. We’ve been on the cover twice now.” Marquardt is also smartly combining her education in communications with her celeb status to pursue a new objective – hosting her own radio and TV shows. She’s got the radio part down already, hosting “The Bridget and Wednesday Friday Show” (Wednesday is the name of her little dog) on Playboy Radio. As for TV, she’s currently pitching a couple of ideas around, one of which is a make-over show where Marquardt finds a small town girl, brings her back to LA, gives her a non-surgical Playboy -style make-over and does a sexy photo shoot. Now that she’s achieved her dream, it seems Marquardt is set on inspiring other girls to embrace their inner-Playmate.
HOLLY MADISON
It’s a little surprising to see a Playboy model feasting on a huge basket of french fries and listing Return of the Jedi as one of her favorite movies. However, one of those fries serves as a reminder that, while Holly Madison may act like the typical girl next door, her life as Hugh Hefner’s main girlfriend and star of The Girls Next Door is anything but normal. “Puffin!” Madison squeals as Hef strolls into the Playboy Mansion dining room in his silk pajamas and reaches for a fry. “May I steal one? They’re not very hot. But you are,” he grins, pecking Madison on the lips. So just how did this girl from small town Alaska end up sharing fries and a bed with millionaire Playboy mogul Hugh Hefner?
When she was growing up, Madison’s family frequently vacationed in Los Angeles and, in 2000, her thirst for adventure made her move to the city. The blonde bombshell describes in characteristically short ‘n’ sweet style how she then came to meet the man behind Playboy. “I was [at the mansion] for a party when I met Hef. He asked me out on a Wednesday and I moved in on Friday.” If only everything was as simple as moving into the Playboy Mansion.
When asked about her relationship with Hef, she responds, “We’re in love, we’re best friends and we have so many common interests.” One of those shared interests is a love of movies and Madison is thrilled to have access to Hef’s extensive movie library; she reels off Charlie Chaplin films, The Goonies, A Christmas Story and Juno as some of her favorites. So as a movie lover, a model and a reality TV star, surely she has some acting aspirations? “I’m not an actress, but if somebody offered me the right role in an interesting project, I would work my ass off and I would do it. And I would do it really well.” It becomes clear that Madison uses that same go-getter attitude in every aspect of her life and work.
Growing up, she always wanted to do something creative; perhaps be an author or an illustrator. Now she’s channeling that creative streak into Playboy Magazine by directing the Playmate shoots and photo-editing. She also runs a jewelry line and a sock line. And then, of course, there’s the small matter of a camera crew following her around 24/7, capturing it all for the enjoyment of The Girls Next Door viewers. According to Madison, the secret to the show’s success is that, “We represent a fantasy lifestyle. And we all have different personalities that compliment and contradict each other. Bridget is full of heart, very girly, very detail-oriented. I’m very organized…I guess I’m the ringleader when we do things together. And Kendra’s very active and vocal.” You might think three hot girls spending that much time together would be a recipe for disaster, but Madison seems to want nothing more than to go on further adventures with her co-stars, “We have a lot of fun together, especially when we travel…We could do The Amazing Race except they’d have to take three of us instead of two.”
KENDRA WILKINSON
It’s a classic fairytale story: Boy sees beautiful girl at lavish party. Boy introduces himself. Girl moves into Playboy Mansion a mere few days later? Ok, so maybe when you replace the boy with Hugh Hefner, the party with the mogul’s 78th birthday party and the girl with firecracker Kendra Wilkinson clad in nothing but body paint and rhinestones, the fairytale takes on a slightly different tone. But for Wilkinson, shocking acts of spontaneity are all part of the fun when it comes to life in the mansion.
“I was 18 at the time. I didn’t know who Hugh Hefner was or what Playboy was,” says Wilkinson remembering the fateful night. “This all happened in a split second. We met, and he wanted me to move in.” Without a thought, Wilkinson, the youngest of Hefner’s girlfriends and self-confessed “tomboy” of the group, left her beloved home of San Diego and joined the other girls at the mansion. “ I didn’t have to think about it. I was living with my ex-boyfriend at the time. I was like s*#t, alright,” she says. Her new life as a girlfriend to one of America’s most talked about pop icons proved to be a far cry from her days spent playing sports back home. With her love of athleticism and tomboy style, Wilkinson seemed like the wild card of Hefner’s busty bombshell pack. But, as she explains, this is why she shares a special connection with Hef. “Hef is 80 percent woman and 20 percent man, and I’m the 20 percent. I connect with him on that level,” she says.
Still, Wilkinson admits she wasn’t used to the elaborate, upscale lifestyle found at the mansion when she first arrived. When she wasn’t hitting the party scene by Hef’s side, Wilkinson spent her down time earning her massage therapy license and bonding more with the mansion’s staff members than its residents. “The staff is the best part about this whole place,” she says. “They’re real cool. If I want to escape real quick and talk to some real people, they’re right there.”
With Wilkinson added to the mix, Hef’s buxom posse seemed to be complete. It wasn’t long before The Girls Next Door began filming, and the private lives of Holly, Bridget and Kendra became entertainment for viewers nationwide. While many reality shows are criticized for being fraught with fabricated storylines and false reenactments, Wilkinson assures us that The Girls Next Door is a pretty accurate depiction of the wild and crazy lifestyle she has come to call her own. “When we moved in, we didn’t have a show. We moved in because we love Hef, and
we love living here,” she says adding, “They came into our world, we didn’t come into theirs.” However, she admits that condensing more than a week or two’s worth of events into a half-hour episode is a bit frustrating. “You get about four
minutes of each of us in an episode. You get four minutes of my life. There’s a lot more to me than what you see on TV.”
Something Wilkinson is quick to point out, that she wishes viewers were more aware of, is that money is not simply provided to the girls; it is earned. “We don’t get money handed down to us,” she explains. “We work for our money. That’s one thing people don’t always know.” As a result of being “smart with [her] money,” Wilkinson is currently buying a second home in San Diego. Real estate has not only become an investment choice, but is also a field Wilkinson would like to pursue as a possible career. “Real estate is my thing. I want to go to school. I’m so informed in real estate right now, it’s not even funny,” she laughs.
In the meantime, Wilkinson is balancing a wide range of projects amidst filming the show and making sure to enjoy every minute of it. “I don’t consider this work. I think it’s fun,” she says. “I don’t take things too seriously.”
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