Hugh Hefner Set His Wife Up With Money Long Before He Died

It appears that Hugh Hefner made plans to ensure his widow would be financially secure well before his death this week.

Gossip site TMZ has obtained the deed to a Hollywood Hills home that is held in trust by Crystal Harris - he bought the property for her back in 2013.

Sources familiar with his estate plan also claimed he left Crystal $5 million (£3.73m).

REMEMBERING HUGH HEFNER'S BEST QUOTES

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Hugh Marston Hefner, often known as Hef, built the iconic Playboy brand from scratch over 60 years ago, starting with the launch of Playboy magazine - a man's mag, combining nude shots of women with articles, fiction and interviews.

Hef served two years in the army, before joining Esquire magazine where he first began thinking about the idea of launching his own men's magazine.

After borrowing around $8000 (£5,900), he produced the first ever issue of Playboy - initially going to be called Stag Party - featuring a nude image of Marilyn Monroe that he'd bought for $200 (£149).

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Hef was so worried that the magazine wouldn't be a success he left the date off the cover. He'd needn't have worried because the magazine flew off the shelves, selling over 50,000 copies in just a few weeks.

By the early 1970s, the magazine was shifting around seven million copies a month, and models, movie stars and singers were soon queuing up to grace the pages of Hef's mag, including Madonna, Kim Basinger, Jessica Alba, Elle Macpherson and Kim Kardashian.

Although, perhaps best known for its nude photos, the magazine featured some top literary talent including Hunter S Thompson and Margaret Atwood - the author of The Handsmaid's Tale.

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The magazine also interviewed political heavy-weights including Jimmy Carter and Martin Luther King Jr.

His enterprise grew to include TV, film, websites, nightclubs and even a clothing range, not to mention his famous Playboy Mansion.

In 2011 he told The Hollywood Reporter: "Could I be in a better place and happier than I am today? I don't think so. In my wildest dreams, I could not have imagined a sweeter life."

Topics: Hugh Hefner

James Dawson

James Dawson is a Journalist at LADbible. He has contributed articles to LADbible’s ‘Knowing Me, Knowing EU’ series on the EU referendum, the 'Electoral Dysfunction' series on the 2017 general election, the ‘U OK M8?’ series tackling mental health amongst young men, and for its ‘Climate Change’ initiative in partnership with National Geographic.

@thejaytoday