Holly Madison Says Pamela Anderson Acted Like She “Did Not Exist” Amid Hugh Hefner Romance
Holly Madison shared insight into her dynamic with Pamela Anderson and how she ignored her while dating Playboy mogul Hugh Hefner.
It wasn’t always a party at the Playboy Mansion.
Holly Madison detailed her relationship, or lack thereof, with Pamela Anderson amid her relationship with Hugh Hefner, who she dated from 2001 to 2008.
“Interacting with Pam in the beginning was a little awkward,” Holly explained on her and Bridget Marquardt’s Girls Next Level podcast Oct. 28. “It’s not that Pam wasn’t nice. It was just that she would do this weird thing where she’d always come up to Hef wherever she would run into him. She’d fawn all over him and he’s surrounded by all these girls.”
“She would act like we did not exist on any level in such a weird way,” Holly continued. “It was so strange to me and the only reason I’m bringing this up is because I remember feeling like it was so strange. I wondered what is that all about and I still kind of wonder because it would change later on. Like she would acknowledge me a little bit toward the very end.”
But the 44-year-old also emphasized that she wasn’t trying to start any drama with Pamela—who has graced the Playboy cover 13 times since 1989.
“I’m a fan of hers,” she explained. “But oftentimes, when I’m talking about mansion experiences, I’ll talk about meeting people like Paris Hilton and how she was so nice and how she would talk to each of us girls like we were equals.”
And while Holly doesn’t have any ill will toward the Baywatch alum, she does wonder why their dynamic played out the way it did.
“Maybe she was at such a weird level of fame where people always wanted something from her that she shouldn’t feel comfortable talking to people, or maybe she had an experience where she tried to talk to Hef’s girlfriends before and it went really poorly,” she said. “I don’t know what it was, but it was so distinct and weird.”
At the same time, Holly noted that since being diagnosed with autism last year at 43, she looks back at the early aughts with a different lens.
“I feel like the real interesting thing about this story is just how differently I perceive the behavior now,” the mom of Rainbow, 11, and Forest, 8, with ex-husband Pasquale Rotella, shared. “Back in my 20s, if somebody was really rude or standoffish to me, especially consistently, I assumed it was a major problem like they really hated me or that they were the world’s biggest a–hole or something.”
“I just don’t really perceive it like that anymore,” she continued. “I feel like part of that is just my own journey with discovering that I’m neurodivergent and recognizing my own behaviors and what’s behind that and it affects how I see other people’s behaviors a little differently.”
E! News has reached out to reps for Pamela for comment and has not yet heard back.
Now, keep reading to see where all the Girls Next Door alums are now.
Kendra Wilkinson
Kendra Wilkinson was one of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner’s three live-in girlfriends when the show premiered in 2005. Fans were so invested in Wilkinson that she got her own spin-off show, Kendra, on E! after leaving the series in 2009.
Her subsequent WE tv series, Kendra On Top, which followed her journey as a mother of two, son Hank IV (born Sept. 11, 2009) and daughter Alijah (May 16, 2014), and her marriage to NFL player Hank Baskett, who she swapped vows with at the Playboy Mansion on June 27, 2009.
The couple split up in 2018 and their divorce was finalized the following year. In her latest chapter, Kendra’s got a real estate license and starring on her own Discovery+ series, Kendra Sells Hollywood.
Bridget Marquardt
From investigating the mansion’s possible haunted past to planning Hef’s birthday, Bridget was No. 1. Her skin was ready to be shown on the Travel Channel’s Bridget’s Sexiest Beaches and she had cameos in the likes of Entourage, The House Bunny and Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Marquardt’s interest in the paranormal has come full circle as host of the podcast Ghost Magnet, featuring interviews with celebs who’ve experienced the unexplainable and other deep dives into various unsolved mysteries. Once part of an iconic trio, she happily paired off long ago with partner Nicholas Carpenter.
Holly Madison
Holly Madison had a successful career after her tenure at the Playboy Mansion, including competing on Dancing with the Stars before getting her own show, Holly’s World, that centered around her career in Las Vegas, including her Peepshow residency.
She published a revealing memoir about her time in the Playboy Mansion, Down the Rabbit Hole: Curious Adventures and Cautionary Tales of a Former Playboy Bunny, in 2015, chasing that it with 2016’s The Vegas Diaries: Romance, Rolling the Dice and the Road to Reinvention.
The longtime PETA advocate is mom to daughter Rainbow (March 5, 2013) and son Forest (Aug. 7, 2016) with ex-husband Pasquale Rotella.
In addition to participating in the scathing A&E docuseries Secrets of Playboy, she described having a complicated relationship with her Girl Next Door co-stars on a 2021 episode of the podcast Call Her Daddy. “Bridget and I have always been close,” she said. “We’ve always been friends since day one. She is [the sweetest].” When asked if she had a relationship with Kendra, Holly tersely replied, “No.”
Crystal Harris
While all of the ladies of The Girls Next Door had a special place in Hefner’s heart, Crystal Harris actually married the Playboy mogul in 2012, the then-86-year-old’s third trip down the aisle. They remained together until his death in 2017.
After Holly spoke out about her relationship with her co-stars, Crystal was quick to pick a side. “I was at the mansion for a DECADE almost four years ago now and these ladies and their drama were there years before that,” she wrote on her MeWe account. “So much time has passed. I side with Kendra here.”
“Not sure why these women who shared an incredibly uncommon and rare experience (that will never be repeated in our lifetimes) can’t get along?” she continued. “Maybe for the same reasons Holly and Bridget despise me for absolutely NO reason. I hope one day we can all get along and compare experiences.”
Crystal also became an advocate for Lyme disease awareness after announcing she’d been diagnosed with the illness in 2016.
Kristina and Karissa Shannon
After the first generation of The Girls Next Door girlfriends left, twins Kristina and Karissa Shannon moved into the Playboy Mansion in 2009. During the remaining seasons, they celebrated their Playboy Summer Issue in Vegas, went camping in the backyard with Hef and prepared for bit parts in Sofia Coppola’s Chateau Marmont-set movie Somewhere.
After the show wrapped, Kristina and Karissa joined the ninth season of Celebrity Big Brother and opened a salon together, Glam Beverly Hills.