Ruth Styles for DailyMail.com
From the age of six, Jennifer Saginor, now 51, spent her childhood at the infamous LA party spot and had a room of her own in the 29-bedroom mansion from the age of 12.
Now, Saginor tells DailyMail.com in an exclusive interview: ‘In my head, it was the most magical, Disneyland environment that a kid could ask for. I used to run into the game room and shove gumballs in my pocket.
‘I’d go to the Grotto and be watching people when they didn’t know I was there and swimming into the tunnel from the Grotto to the pool and just really, I just had so many different adventures.’
But, she explains, ‘as the years went on, I didn’t realize some of the boundaries being crossed by the adults would be something that would affect me for years to come.’
Saginor, who has written a memoir called Playground about her childhood, says Playboy boss Hugh Hefner was like an ‘uncle’ and would have his butlers cater to her every whim, whether a cheeseburger for lunch or a ride to school in the Playboy limo.
From the age of six, Jennifer Saginor, now 51, spent her childhood at the infamous LA party spot and had a room of her own in the 29-bedroom mansion from the age of 12
The reason was her father: Dr. Mark Saginor, Hefner’s personal physician and close friend who was nicknamed ‘Dr. Feelgood’ due to his propensity for dishing out prescription pills.
She describes how he encouraged Saginor and her sister to embrace nudity, took her clubbing at 15, and kept three jars filled with pills in the kitchen of the Beverly Hills family home labeled ‘uppers,’ ‘downers,’ and ‘quaaludes.’
But most of their time was spent at the mansion, exposing the glamorous blonde to shenanigans that included naked parties, parades of porn stars such as Ron Jeremy constantly in the home and big screen TVs that showed erotica on a loop.
Saginor is now set to star in a Netflix documentary due out in September detailing her unusual childhood at the mansion — and the addiction battle that followed after she became hooked on prescription meds in her teens.
Appearing in the documentary alongside Saginor will be Jackie Hatten, 48, who became a regular at the Playboy Mansion in the early 2000s thanks to her best friend: Anna Nicole Smith.
She revealed she now has ‘mixed feelings’ about the mansion due to the effect it had on her as a child (pictured)
Like Saginor, who made her final visit to the mansion in 2010 just before she entered rehab, Hatten describes a whirlwind of louche glamor, outrageous parties and catty competitiveness among the girls.
Saginor, who had a fling with one of Hefner’s girlfriends as a teenager, said there was always an element of competition but that it hit new heights during the noughties.
At the time, Hefner was dating Holly Madison, Kendra Wilkinson, and Bridget Marquardt, who later became famous thanks to E! reality show The Girls Next Door.
Although Saginor says she was allowed to do whatever she liked at the Mansion while growing up there, both women said Hefner’s harem of playmates were expected to follow the rules.
The rules, which were outlined in a contract signed by all of the playmates, included staying slim and agreeing to regular weigh-ins, abiding by a 9pm curfew, and a driving ban.
More arcane rules included avoiding eating cookies from a special jar that only Hef could touch and agreeing to sex with the Playboy supremo and his friends.
She recalled being exposed to nudity, sex, and Hefner’s harem of playmates, who she said would constantly compete for his attention
In exchange, the women were given an allowance of $1,000 a week.
Saginor and Hatten said the girls would jockey for position — all aiming to get closer to Hefner and the prize of becoming his number one girlfriend and sharing his bedroom.
Madison, in particular, became a pro at exploiting the rules and would regularly tell tales to Hefner about other girls who broke them.
‘Being Hef’s girlfriends in the inner circle, it was a competitive environment, catty, and I’m sure like being in a sorority in some ways,’ Saginor said.
‘It became a running joke that Holly was the narc. The narc that would narc on these other girls and get them in trouble if they for instance ate Hef’s personal cookies. He had these cookies that were just for him and no one was supposed to eat them.
‘Or when Kendra started dating Hank. She dated him for a few months and it was Holly who mentioned to Hef that Kendra was dating Hank.
‘Fortunately, Hef reacted in a positive way and Kendra was able to ask to have her wedding on the grounds which was unusual because usually, if someone broke a contract, they were thrown out.’
As a young girl, Saginor viewed the mansion as ‘the most magical, Disneyland environment that a kid could ask for’ and loved running into the game room (pictured) where she’d stuff her pockets with gumballs
Hatten tells another story about how she and three playmate friends were on a shoot in Malibu with noughties band Crazytown when one discovered she was being booted out of the Mansion after Madison told Hefner she had put a pair of his famous satin pajamas on Ebay.
‘Regina got a call saying she had been told on by Holly for taking some of Hef’s PJs, the satin PJs, so she got in trouble and got diced out of the mix,’ she said.
‘That was one of the things everyone got so upset about — that Holly would get people in trouble by telling on them.’
Saginor revealed she was still hooked on drugs when she wrote her 2005 memoir, Playground
Both say they have happy memories of Hefner, who died in 2017, and the wild parties he famously threw.
Hatten said: ‘The mansion was always super-fun, a lot of different interesting people and I was in the industry too, so I had a lot in common with many of them.’
Saginor added: ‘Living in the Playboy Mansion, for sure it was a very glamorous, fast paced lifestyle.
‘There was lots of drugs, lots of glitter and women and fun parties. Of course, there was a lot of sex. It was a hedonistic environment.
‘Holly and Kendra came on the scene and they were active participants, along with a lot of other women. These are willing participants, of course. Nobody was forcing them to do anything.
‘This was a free, fun loving other environment and if not, there’s the door. There were a million Hollys waiting to take her place.’
For her own part, Saginor has mixed memories of her upbringing and says a Playboy Mansion childhood is not what she would choose for her own child.
In 2005, she wrote a book called Playground about her childhood and says she now has a more clear-headed perspective on Mansion life than she did then.
She also described the catty competitiveness among the Playmates, revealing Holly Madison (pictured second from left in 2004) would commonly snitch on the other girls
She said: ‘The way I feel about Hef today is very different from how I felt growing up or even when I wrote the book because I wasn’t sober, I wasn’t clear-headed.
‘Even today, it’s still taking me a long time to understand that this environment that had no boundaries wasn’t healthy or typical for a woman who wants to feel good about herself or support other women.
‘It just wasn’t that kind of place. I don’t blame Hef for the environment he created because the rules were very clear – they were set forth in a contract from the beginning.’
The author added: ‘The way I saw Hef was as an uncle, as a second father figure. He was always very kind to me, very generous.
‘I had a room there and he encouraged me to see the mansion as a second home and for that I’m very grateful.
‘As I grew up into my teens, of course that was the only world I ever knew. For me, I think now having some perspective, I can see some of the situations weren’t appropriate for a child but at the time I didn’t know any different.’
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