Hugh Hefner’s son – and the current CCO of Playboy – Cooper wasn’t even born when then-businessman Donald Trump was featured on the cover of the company’s iconic magazine.
And yet the 25-year-old has revealed that he is ‘personally embarrassed’ by the decision to feature the now-President on the front of the publication’s March 1990 issue.
In an interview in which he discussed his plans to make Playboy relevant for a new generation, the company’s chief creative officer made it clear that although the President is known to admire his father, Playboy founder Hugh, the feeling is certainly not mutual as far as Cooper is concerned.
Not into it: Cooper Hefner, 25, hadn’t been born when president Donald Trump appeared on the March 1990 cover of Playboy (pictured), but said he feels ‘personally embarrassed” by it
Taking over the empire: Cooper recently took over as Playboy’s chief creative officer and is working to bring the brand to his own generation
‘We don’t respect the guy,’ Cooper told the Hollywood Reporter of Trump and his presidency.
He then elaborated: ‘There’s a personal embarrassment because Trump is somebody who has been on our cover’.
Hugh’s youngest son pointed out that the country’s current climate of ‘reactionary cultural conservatism’ is remarkably similar to that of the Eisenhower era, when Playboy was first founded.
Cooper, a self-described liberal, sees these similarities as his opening to bring the iconic company to a whole new generation.
‘Yes, there are lifestyle components to Playboy, but it’s really a philosophy about freedom and, right now, as history is repeating itself in real time, I want Playboy to be central to that conversation,’ he said.
The young executive recently took creative control of his father’s $500million empire, having left for 18 months in 2015 over disagreements over the direction in which the company was being taken – particularly the boardroom’s decision to stop featuring nudity on the pages of Playboy.
A progressive like his father: Cooper was not afraid to show his political leanings and described himself as a liberal. His father Hugh, 91, has always expressed the same ideology
Bringing the nudes back: The 25-year-old, pictured with his girlfriend Scarlett Byrne, was behind Playboy’s decision to bring back nudity to its pages after briefly banning it in 2015
Saying that nudity was not the problem, but how it was presented, Cooper brought back the naked girls on the magazine’s March issue, which featured his fiancee, actress Scarlett Byrne, 26, along with an essay where she said her decision to pose nude was a feminist act.
Cooper is in the process of slowly taking over his father’s role as the Playboy boss. Now 91, and suffering from back troubles, Hugh lives a reclusive life in his very famous mansion, from where he reportedly still provides notes on the magazine.
He wants to keep his father’s vision for the company alive while at the same time adjusting it to today’s world.
‘I suit up in my dad’s pajamas for our Midsummer Night’s Dream party, it’s a nice note to the past,” Cooper said. “It would be a major mistake – ridiculous – to wear them to the office. I think about the Playboy philosophy constantly, but I have my own point of view. It’s what will have to carry me through’.