The Lives of Holly, Bridget, Kendra and Hugh Hefner

Hugh Hefner, Founder and Editor in Chief of Playboy Magazine, is infamous for his follies and womanizing of the Playboy playmates through out the years, several of which he had long term relationships with simultaneously, one of his hunny bunny's, Barbi Benton, was the one to find his mansion for him in the 1970's. Barbi still visits the mansion often and remains a dear friend to Hef.

It is Hefner's current three girlfriend's that are attracting the most attention as of late, with their hit Reality TV series "the Girls Next Door." Holly Madison, a doe eyed platinum blond, joined Hef's harem of six women at the time, in 2001 and happily assumed the roll as "Primary Girlfriend" a very short time later in 2002. Shortly after Playboy's 50th anniversary in 2003, five of the seven girlfriends left, leaving Holly and Bridget Marquardt to tend to Hef. In 2004 Kendra Wilkinson (also Blond, age 18) was asked to move into the mansion and became girlfriend number 3. In August 2005 the series premiered, and was based on following these three beauties and their lives with Hef both around the mansion on their travels together. The show was such a hit that the first 8 planned episodes turned into 15. To celebrate the show's success, Playboy published a special nude pictorial of Holly, Bridget and Kendra in the November 2005 issue. The second season began on July 30, 2006 and in celebration, another nude pictorial of the bombshells, was published in September 2006. The third season of the show began airing March 4, 2007, and the tag line is "You call it fantasy, they call it home."

The Series got great ratings as 990,000 viewers tuned for the first season, pulling down double what E! normally gets for that time slot. The first episode of season 2 had 1.6 million viewers which was said to be a three year high for an E! series. The third season premier received the second highest ratings for a series premier in E!'s 16 year history and attracted an overall 2.17 million viewers and is now E!'s number 1 rated show.

After watching the show myself I can see why so many people are fascinated by it. Who wouldn't want to find out more about these three buxom babes and what in the world is wrong with them, maybe they were abused as children or dropped as babies, why else would they have an intimate relationship with an 81 year old man, and then to share him with 2 other women! Hefner and Bridget are both still legally married to other people, and Kendra was barely a legal age before she moved into that den of iniquity! It is like a train wreck, so tragic I want to look away but I can't! I don't know what to make of them, but they seem to be having the time of their lives and we all know, Sex sells and these girls got the public by the proverbial nose ring.

Here is a little bit about the four of them.

Holly was born on December 23^rd 1979 in Astoria, Oregon as Holly Cullen. From the age of 2 until 11 she lived in Alaska, and then moved to St. Helen's, Oregon with her family. When Holly was 20 she moved to Los Angeles, California where she was trying to become a Hawaiian Tropic model while working at Hooter's. It was during this time at Hooter's and with her exposure as an aspiring tropic model that began landing her invitations to the widely acclaimed parties at Hefner's mansion.

Bridget was born on September 25^th 1973 in Tillamook, Oregon as Bridget Christina Sandmeier. Shortly after birth, Bridget's mother moved the family back to California. Bridget grew up on her stepfather's ranch with her sister Anastasia, whom has appeared on many episodes of the series, and brother Eddie, who is now in the military and has also appeared on at least one episode of the show. Bridget earned a Master's degree in communications from the University of the Pacific in 2001 and then moved to Los Angeles where she began attracting a lot of attention from modeling and acting agents and appeared in several small roles in movies and soap opera's. Bridget also began to get invited to parties at Hefner's mansion at that point and in March 2002 went on her first date with Hef, and moved into the mansion shortly thereafter. Another interesting bit of trivia, is that Bridget married Chad Christopher Marquardt in 1997 and is still legally married, as is Hugh Hefner to his second wife Kimberly Conrad. You know what they say, "birds of a feather."

Kendra was born June 12^th 1985 in San Diego, California. Kendra graduated high school in 2003 and played softball for six years with the Clairemont Bobby Sox. A self proclaimed Tomboy, Kendra said her career goal was to become a sports announcer. In December 2005 she started blogging regularly as on the website of the Philadelphia Eagles, the team her mother was once a professional cheerleader for. Kendra met Hefner while working his 78^th birthday party as one of "The Painted Girls." Hefner was so taken with her he inquired as to who she was and it didn't take him long to invite her to move into his mansion, she was 19. She is now 21 and living the high life at the mansion with her two dogs Rascal and Martini.

Hugh Marston Hefner was born on April 9th 1926 in Chicago, Illinois. Hefner founded Playboy magazine in 1953 by raising $10,000 from 45 investors, $1,000 of which was from his mother. The very first centerfold for Playboy was a female employee; Charlaine Karalus aka "Janet Pilgrim." The centerfold idea was such a success that from that point on the Playboy centerfold tradition was started. On June 25^th 1949 Hefner married his first wife Mildred Williams, they were divorced after 10 years of marriage. After a 30 year bachelor fest, Hefner married his 2^nd wife Kimberly Conrad, they were seperated 9 years later but have yet to legally divorce. In April 2006 on an episode of Hannity and Colmes, during an interview with one of the two stars of the show, Alan Colmes, Hefner stated that Holly Madison was the one true "love of his life." . Hefner has had 4 children, 2 with each wife: Christie Hefner; born in 1952, David Hefner; born 1955, Marston Hefner; born 1990, and Cooper Hefner; born 1991.