Meet Hugh Hefner's 4 Kids

The following article mentions sexual misconduct allegations.

Hugh Hefner was many things. He was the founder of Playboy magazine, a leader in a movement that ushered in new attitudes about sexuality in the United States, a champion of equal rights among marginalized communities. He was accused of sexual misconduct and mistreating the women he lived with. He was a hero to some and a villain to others. And yes, he was also a family man. That said, being a family man didn't always come easily to him.

"I don't enjoy parenthood as such," Hefner told Vanity Fair in 2001. "I don't have a lot in common with children. I must say that in the early part of my second marriage I enjoyed it—in my first marriage my head was somewhere else completely. I really didn't want the children. ... I accepted it as simply a part of life. But parenthood is not a natural thing to me, and it wasn't to my parents, and I think you pass that on to some extent."

While "The Girls Next Door" cast member Holly Madison was one of Hefner's most high-profile relationships, they never wed. He was first married to Mildred Williams, then to Kimberley Conrad. Finally, Hefner married Crystal Harris, who would later become his widow. With two of those women, Hefner had children. Despite what that Vanity Fair interview quote suggests, Hefner had a distinct bond with each of his children. And now, they're all grown up and following their own paths. Take a closer look at Hugh Hefner's four kids. 

Part of the reason Hugh Hefner and his eldest child, Christie Hefner, became so close is because she worked at Playboy for decades. A year after Christie graduated college, her father asked her to join him at his company. The brand was faltering a bit, and Christie's influence turned it into a profitable venture once again. "[Hugh] felt that having me in Chicago at a time that the company was going through a major restructuring and reorganization with a lot of new executives being brought in — to have someone here through that period — would be helpful to him," Christie told The Washington Post in 1983. Eventually, Christie became the CEO of Playboy.

Just as her father did, while working for Playboy, Christie dealt with criticism over the brand, with naysayers claiming that the magazine objectified women and set their causes back. But Christie felt that the magazine was inherently feminist, and she never let the negative feedback control her work. "I was in good company in that there were a lot of women that wrote for the magazine and worked for the company who shared a common view that being feminist didn't mean you were anti-male, that men could both admire and desire women," Christie told Fox 32 Chicago.

David Hefner, Hugh Hefner's second child with Mildred Williams, arrived in 1955. While Christie Hefner took an active interest in Playboy and publicized her career, David has been much more private, and most of what's known about him is from what his sister and father have shared. Per Christie's aforementioned interview with The Washington Post, Hugh was not a daily fixture in her and David's life while they were growing up. "[Hugh and Mildred] hadn't had much contact because my stepfather was so sensitive about any kind of ongoing presence of my father in our family," Christie said of her parents' relationship after they got divorced.

Years later, in an interview with The New York Times, Hugh was asked about David, and the Playboy mogul respected his son's privacy, only noting that he was in college and earning good grades. "Because society's expectations are so different for men and women, I think it is much more difficult to be my son than my daughter. I don't think it reflects any separation from me, but rather a need at this particular point in his life to be himself," Hugh said of his relationship with his son at the time. The two did spend time together throughout Hugh's life, with David joining his siblings to play games with their father.

In many ways, Marston Hefner's life looks far different from his father's, but in some, it's quite similar. In 2022, Marston marriedAnna Hefner, and in 2023, the two welcomed their first child. "I always wanted to be a parent, and I just never found the person who felt right for me or who wanted to do it with me, for the long term. Now, it feels like I'm really in that Hollywood romance stage of things," Marston told People after becoming a father. 

Marston and Anna also share similar feelings about allowing their child to do whatever he wants in the future. "As long as he feels supported and he feels he can express himself to be whoever he wants to be, that's the most important thing," Anna said. While Marston has not had much professional affiliation with Playboy, he did inherit his father's love for the written word. Marston works as a writer, and he's published a collection of short stories called "High School Romance."

Marston also keeps in touch with his dad's widow. Crystal Hefner (née Harris) and Hugh Hefner's relationship began when Marston was a teenager, and she was a part of the magazine titan's life until he died. In 2023, Crystal Hefner and her stepson reunited for her podcast, and the two seemed to get on swimmingly. The following year, Crystal shared with Hello! magazine that she planned to take one of Marston's kids to Disneyland. 

Aside from Christie Hefner, Hugh Hefner's youngest child, Cooper Hefner, has been the most involved in Playboy. Cooper was born in 1991, and the bulk of his childhood was spent living in a house on the Playboy Mansion property. He did, however, spend lots of time at the Mansion itself, and that influence stuck. In the 2010s, Cooper became chief creative officer at Playboy. "Creating something that resonates with my generation and the generation that comes after mine is how I'll measure my accomplishments," Cooper told The Hollywood Reporter of his plans for his time at the company.

Cooper landing a prominent role at Playboy had been in the works for a while. As noted in the Wall Street Journal in 2014, Cooper was positioned to take over the company after his father. "I admire my dad and everything that he stood for in the '60s and '70s and still stands for, so it's an honor, to say the least, to carry on the family legacy," Cooper said at the time. Cooper didn't stay at Playboy forever, though. In the year following his father's death, Cooper left Playboy to start his own media company called the Hefner Media Corporation. The Playboy brand no longer has any formal affiliation with the Hefner family.

Cooper Hefner is a dedicated husband and father. In 2019, he married his longtime girlfriend, Scarlett Hefner (née Byrne), and in 2020, Scarlett delivered the couple's first child together, a daughter named Betsy. In 2022, the couple welcomed a set of twins to their family, Marigold and Blossom. "How blessed we are to be gifted with their life. How lucky we are to be given this love," Cooper said on Instagram after sharing the news.

Cooper's children are going to live a much different life than he did. His kids won't have the unique experience of growing up with a father who's also one of the most famous men in the world, nor will they spend their early years at the Playboy Mansion. Cooper has, however, shared that despite living at the iconic residence, his childhood wasn't full of parties and debauchery as one might expect. "[The Playboy Mansion] really acted as a pretty traditional home — even though it's not a traditional home — for me and my brother, especially when our parents were together," Cooper told Business Insider while hosting a tour of the Playboy Mansion. As a child, Cooper did try to get a glimpse of all the action, though. "Like any other 13, 14, 15-year-old, if you're upstairs and your parents are having a Christmas party, you're gonna sneak downstairs and try and figure out what's going on and why you're not invited to the party," he said.