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Kendra Wilkinson has shared the lasting impact her relationship with Hugh Hefner has had on her life.
The former Playboy model, now 39, was the youngest of Hugh Hefner’s three girlfriends featured on their reality show, The Girls Next Door.
At the time, Hefner was also dating Bridget Marquardt, now 51, and his main girlfriend, Holly Madison, now 45.
Wilkinson first met Hefner at his 78th birthday party when she was just 18, where she worked as a “painted lady,” meaning she was nude except for body paint.
She moved into the Playboy Mansion shortly after their meeting in 2004 and lived there until 2009.
Many of Hugh Hefner’s former girlfriends have opened up about their experiences at the mansion, and now, Wilkinson has shared how it continues to affect her sexual relationships.
Speaking on the Amy & T.J. podcast, Wilkinson admitted, “Look, I struggle still to this day with my relationships and my views on sex.”
She continued, “I had to go through a lot of therapy, and they looked at me and they’re like — this is the first time I’m admitting this — but they’re like, ‘You might have a little bit of a sex problem. You have a little bit of a problem when it comes to thinking of sex.'”
Host T.J. Holmes asked the model-turned-real-estate agent how her relationship with Hefner, their 60-year age gap, and the “environment” she experienced during her formative years had affected her long-term.
He asked, “Again, you’re a teenager. You hadn’t necessarily been exposed to healthy relationships at that point in your life, but it put you on a certain path — what did that do to you, and how did it shape what you thought a relationship was, should be, and the type of person you were interested in?”
Wilkinson admitted that her time at the Playboy Mansion led to “just unhealthy thoughts,” explaining, “Not really settling for a marriage and stuff like that.”
She continued, “Which is not, I wouldn’t say unhealthy — I’m saying that everyone has their choices. Some people want to be single, some people want to be married… and I’m more of a fun idea type of person.”
Wilkinson eventually left the mansion for good in 2009 after getting engaged to former Philadelphia Eagles star Hank Baskett, and the couple even held their wedding ceremony at the Playboy Mansion.
She revealed that after five years at the notorious property, she was ready to move on with her life, telling Holmes and co-host Amy Robach, “I found myself so bored at the Playboy Mansion.”
She added, “I was just like, ‘I’m ready to leave this place. I’m ready to start a family. I’m ready for the lifestyle: My kids go to a great school. I’m a soccer mom. I’m a softball mom. I’m a basketball mom.'”
“I manifested it, and it came to me, and I met the perfect man, the man of my dreams.”
Although she and Baskett divorced in 2018, Wilkinson still looks back on those years as “the golden years” of being a wife and mother.
She admitted, “When those days came to an end, I crumbled so hard and it almost killed me. It almost killed me.”
Despite their break-up being triggered by cheating allegations, Wilkinson and Baskett have managed to maintain a strong co-parenting relationship.
She explained, “Even though we’re divorced, he’s the father of my kids, and he’s the most amazing father to my kids, and I know I chose right with him.”
Wilkinson and Baskett share two children: son Hank, 15, and daughter Alijah, 10.
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