POSING for a raunchy spread in Playboy, Miki Garcia felt empowered and determined to rise through the ranks of the powerful company.

But her brief fame as one of Hugh Hefner’s Playmates, and a subsequent career as a promotions director at Playboy, came at a heavy cost.

Denied a promised Playmate of the Year title after refusing to sleep with Hefner, she claims she was twice raped by a famous actor and left traumatised by the ‘cult-like’ world of the Playboy mansion, where fellow models were lost to drug addiction, suicide and even murder.

When she bravely blew the whistle on Hef – at a 1985 enquiry into the porn industry – she was threatened by his associates and lived in fear of her life.

Fifty years on, ahead of the explosive documentary Secrets of Playboy – which airs on Crime+Investigation on March 23rd – she tells The Sun the fantasy world Hugh Hefner created at his notorious Los Angeles mansion “did not allow for the consent of the women".

“Once you walked into the Playboy world, you were controlled by Hefner and his team,” she says.

READ MORE SUN STORIES

Terrifying ways partners can use household gadgets to control and spy on you

German man offered to have sex with me at Playboy Mansion, says Katherine Ryan

“It was cult-like. The women were brainwashed and groomed to believe they were part of his family, and he really did believe he owned these women. We had Playmates that overdosed, Playmates who committed suicide.

“Many of them started taking drugs to cope. It was painful. There was a pattern. They walked through the damn mansion door and they exited in a horrific, horrific way.”

The 10-part documentary examines what went on behind the doors of the Playboy mansion through the eyes of former playmates including Sondra Theodore, who dated Hef when she was 19 and he was 50, and claims he used her as a drug mule.

Jennifer Saginor, whose father was Hef’s best friend and doctor, grew up at the mansion and reveals she was exposed to drug-fuelled orgies from the age of 11.

Most read in News

“I would see women naked with men all around them. I would see them on the floor on all fours and they were on drugs. It scared me,” she says.

“The men were laughing and I remember thinking ‘I never want to be like these girls’, running around like animals.

“This wasn’t about empowerment of women, it was about the breaking down of a woman.”

Miki, who worked for the company from 1973 to 1982, says sexual assault and rape was a common part of the Playmates’ experience, but they were kept silent by threats and coercion.

She says her own rapist told her that no-one would believe her if she reported him, because she wore the famous Playboy bunny symbol.

Hugh Hefner would make Jeffrey Epstein look like a choir boy – he ruined so many lives

Hefner died the month before the Me Too movement went viral in October 2017, in the wake of sex abuse allegations against disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein.

But Miki believes “without a doubt” that, if he were alive, he would be facing prosecution for his treatment of young vulnerable women.

“He would make Jeffrey Epstein look like a choir boy,” she says. “He ruined so many lives. They're damaged today. I'm damaged today. You don't recover from that experience, you just manage it, if you’re lucky.”

Sex with Hef was a 'given'

Miki was discovered after taking part in a beauty pageant, and had been promised the coveted title of Playmate of the Year when she was taken to the mansion to meet Hefner.

“I was extremely nervous because I knew that if I didn't go to bed with him, I wasn't going to get Playmate of the Year,” she says.

As she approached the powerful businessman, at Marilyn’s insistence, he was unwrapping a giant sex toy, which made her feel queasy.

Miki told Marilyn she wouldn't have sex with him, and they drove back to her office, where other models were gathered. There Marilyn “made a toast to the new Playmate of the Year… Cyndi Wood”.

“That was my first business lesson from Hugh Hefner," says Miki.

The Playboy boss allegedly tried to bed Miki three more times, but she always refused.

“It wasn't forced, physically, but it was almost like a given in his world,” she says.

“I'm not saying Cyndi slept with him and I believe there were a few other playmates that didn't cave to his demands, but in general, most did.”

Playmates drugged and coerced into sex

Miki tried to avoid parties at the mansion but was often there in a work capacity and says drugs, including sedative quaaludes and cocaine, were rife.

“The young women were under terrible pressure to conform to the Playboy lifestyle he sold through the magazine, but people didn't realise how harmful it was in practice,” she says.

“The mansion was beautiful. Everything is laid out perfectly – the buffet, the bar – and young women didn't have to be over the legal age of 21 years old to consume alcohol, get drunk, take drugs.

“I saw women under the influence of drugs that had been given to them by Hefner and others and I could tell that some of them really didn't want to go upstairs.

“Those that did, it was to gain favour with him… he pitted women against women, to divide and conquer.

“He was able to control them and get them to sleep with them and to do whatever else he wanted – sleep with his cronies or do things that were beyond ‘normal’ sex. I could tell many of the Playmates were uncomfortable with that.”

TV star made me shower between rapes

Miki was raped twice by a famous actor during her early years as a Playmate. She was working for the promotional arm of the company, appearing at a motor show, alongside her attacker – who she will still not name.

He forced his way into her hotel room, and when she threatened to call the police, he wedged himself between her and the telephone.

“He told me that there was nothing I could do and I knew that was true," she said. "The emotional scars that he left me are irreparable.”

The actor – still alive and “doing well” according to Miki – made her take a shower before raping her for a second time, because he wanted her to be “fresh”.

Miki didn’t report the rape to her bosses at Playboy because she didn’t want to be seen as a “whiner or a person that couldn't handle the job".

“It was the 1970s and a very difficult time for any young woman to come forward and say they were raped, particularly by someone powerful,” she says.

“It's something that I had to bury deep inside of me. I wasn't the only one raped. Playmates were at risk… men thought that they could have their way with them.”

Drug addicts abandoned by Hef

Miki was promoted to Director of Playmate Promotions, in charge of booking girls for events – and squashing negative reports about the brand and Hefner.

She says she was frequently called in to “talk Playmates down” from suicide.

“The pull of that mansion, and his power was just way too much for most. And once they're hooked on drugs, they're no longer in control,” she says.

“When they hit rock bottom, Hefner was not going to give them support.”

Miki was told not to help one promising model, who spiralled after becoming addicted to cocaine, because she "got herself into that mess".

Fears for her life after threats

Miki quit after it became “too much” in 1982, following the murder of model Dorothy Stratton by her abusive partner.

In 1985, when the US government ordered an enquiry into pornographic magazines, she was the only former Playmate to testify, and was terrified.

“I knew I was going against a powerful entity. It wasn't just Hefner himself but all of his attorneys and the company,” she says.

“But I was determined to speak out. I told what was happening to the women, that they were being coerced into terrible things. I testified about drugs, rape, abuse, coercion, many things that young woman should not be subjected to.”

Warned off by several members of the organisation, brave Miki said she had to hire a bodyguard for protection.

“I was afraid for my life for many years,” she says. “Hefner wanted me to shut up. He told lies about me to tarnish my reputation.

“I told one of his emissaries that if anything happened to me, my family, or anyone close to me, I would turn over all of the information and documentation that I had to the police.

“And if I was dead, someone else had been instructed to hand everything over.

“I think that's what kept me alive. Hef was afraid that all of this would come out – and I had hard evidence to prove it.”

Miki is thrilled that the new docuseries means women have broken the silence on the reality behind the Playboy fantasy.

“Playboy has changed and I think they are making an effort to be more female friendly, but they still have a history of exploitation and a lot of things need to be cleared up,” she says.

“They sold our nudes to hardcore porn sites and that is a tremendous heartbreak to me.

“I can't tell you how it has impacted me to be degraded and used as clickbait for other people to go in and watch disgusting content with aggressive sexual behaviour.

“There are lessons for the present from our past.”

Secrets of Playboy airs on Crime+Investigation from March 23 andis available to stream on CI play from March 24

Source: Read Full Article