Hugh Hefner's Ex-Employee Says Drug Use At Playboy Mansion Was 'Necessary Evil'

Lisa Loving Barrett worked side-by-side Hugh Hefner as his assistant from 1977 to 1989.

In a preview clip for upcoming A&E docu-series Secrets of Playboy, she claims there was widespread use of Quaaludes in the Playboy Mansion - which Barrett said they nicknamed 'leg spreaders'.

Quaaludes are prescription drugs that act as a sedative, and were used to treat insomnia and anxiety.

She says in the clip: "They were a necessary evil, if you will, to the partying."

She added the employees at the mansion had prescriptions in their names ‘to feed the [Playboy] machine’. 

Sonda Theodore, one of Hefner's ex-girlfriends, supported Barrett's claims.

She added that the whole point of taking Quaaludes at the mansion was that they were to be ‘used for sex’.

She said: "Hef pretended he wasn't involved in any hard drug use at the mansion, but that was just a lie."

She said of the experience of taking Quaaludes: "Everything felt good to touch and soft focus and it was lovely,

"Usually you just took a half. If you took two you passed out.

"The men knew that they could get girls to do just about anything they wanted if they gave them a Quaalude."

Another of Hefner's ex-girlfriends Holly Madison has also said the Playboy Mansion wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. 

In another preview clip for Secrets of Playboy, Madison recalls a moment when Hefner ‘flipped out’ after she got her hair cut short. 

She claimed her former boyfriend dubbed her ‘old, hard and cheap’ due to her new look.  

Secrets of Playboy is set to premiere on 24 January on A&E.