Six decades apart! Playboy Hefner gets ‘ knotty’ again

LOVE, the true variety or otherwise, knows no age barriers — and Playboy chief Hugh Hefner is living proof of this. The 84- year- old has apparently got engaged to his 24- year- old girlfriend Crystal Harris.

Hefner tweeted that he has gifted Harris a ring on Christmas eve, the celebrity gossip website TMZ. com reported. “ After the movie ( The Tourist ) tonight ( Friday), Crystal and I exchanged gifts. I gave Crystal a ring. A truly memorable Christmas Eve,” he posted.

While Harris may well have jumped at the chance to be Mrs Hugh Hefner, her happiness could be tempered by Hefner’s marriage history. He has tied the knot twice before; with Mildred Williams, their marriage lasting from 1949 to 1959, and later with model- actress Kimberly Conrad with whom he split earlier this year.

He met Mildred or Milly, with whom he shared his first sexual experience, in college. Of the marriage, Hefner has said: “ I think the relationship was probably held together by two years of foreplay. That wasn’t unusual for our time. In fact, most of my immediate friends didn’t have sex until they married. Milly and I had it just before.”

“ I had literally saved myself for my wife, but after we had sex, she told me that she’d had an affair. That was the most devastating moment in my life. My wife was more sexually experienced than I was. After that, I always felt in a sense that the other guy was in bed with us, too.”

Nonetheless, he and Milly remained married for ten years and had two children, Christie, was has been chairman and chief executive officer of Playboy since the mid- 80s, while Hefner has remained the magazine's editor- in- chief.

In September 2009, Hefner asked for his marriage to former playmate Kimberly Conrad, 47, to be ended because the two were feuding about money. Hefner wanted his support payments for Conrad to be cut by half to $ 20,000 a month, saying he has already given his estranged wife close to $ 12 million since their separation in 1998.

At the time, Hefner had told TMZ : “ I am happy to be out of the marriage. I only remained married for the sake of the children, at her request.”

In recent years, Hefner has had numerous girlfriends — including Holly Madison, Kendra Wilkinson and Bridget Marquardt, who starred alongside him in the reality show The Girls Next Door.

After his relationship with all three ended, Hefner began living with 19- yearold twins Karissa and Kristina Shanno — and Crystal Harris. It’s remarkable that Hefner’s failed relationships haven’t put him off marriage yet.

Reproduced From Mail Today. Copyright 2010. MTNPL. All rights reserved.