Hey, it's NPR's Book of the Day. I'm Timbermius. The Playboy Mansion is known for its excess,

for hordes of beautiful people, and for its lavish, often debauchous parties. It was that opulent

and carefree environment that enticed Crystal Harris. She found herself at the mansion on Halloween

night back in 2008 and would later

go on to become the wife of Hugh Hefner, the infamous founder of Playboy magazine. In her new memoir,

Only Say Good Things, Crystal Harris Hefner writes about her time in the Playboy mansion,

and the stringent, often troubling rules that governed her life there.

She spoke about it with Morning Edition host Michelle Martin,

and in the interview, she talks about how she lost herself in the allure of the Playboy

Mansion, but how it was ultimately a facade and what it took to find her way back.

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Crystal Harris was a 21-year-old college student on Halloween night 2008

when she found herself at the iconic Playboy Mansion being summoned from the crowd by Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner.

That very night, she would enter the mansion, becoming one of Hefner's countless girlfriends,

and his third wife, 60 years younger than he, living with him at the mansion until his death at the age of 91.

That was nearly seven years ago. Now Crystal Hefner is talking about her marriage and her life at the Playboy Mansion in a new book, Only Say Good Things.

I think it was about indulgence, excess, freedom, sexual freedom. And it was a place that when I first arrived seemed completely magical. It's like, you know, Willy Wonka,

...