Hugh Hefner’s Daughter Discusses Growing Up With Her ‘Playboy’ Dad

Hugh Hefner had a long life and a long career in Hollywood.

As the founder of Playboy, he contributed to the sexual revolution of the mid-century. When he passed away in September at the age of 91, the world lost a pop culture icon.

Hugh’s widow, Crystal Hefner, broke her silence earlier this year, a week after Hugh’s death, in an interview with People. Crystal discussed her relationship with Hugh and even said he’d saved her life.

Now, the only daughter of the legendary “Mr. Playboy” is similarly opening up about what it was like to have Hugh as a dad.

Christie Hefner gave an extensive, rare interview for Playboy‘s January/February 2018 issue. The 65-year-old former chairman and CEO of the company discussed her relationship with Hugh, how he changed over the years, and what it was like to be a woman at the helm of Playboy.

Scroll through to read more of Christie’s revelations and insights about her late dad.

Thumbnail Photo: Instagram / Hugh Hefner

[H/T: People]

 Instagram / Hugh Hefner

Christie is Hugh’s oldest child. Along with her younger brother, David, she was one of two children born to the future Playboy founder and his first wife, Mildren “Millie” Williams. In fact, Christie was born in 1952 — just one year before Hugh founded the magazine that would make him famous.

Millie was an English teacher and Hugh’s college sweetheart. The two were only married for a few years before separating when Christie was 4.

 Instagram / Hugh Hefner

Despite stories suggesting that Hugh had “abandoned” his family after finding success with Playboy, Christie maintained that the split wasn’t acrimonious and that her mom always made sure to emphasize how much Hugh loved both his kids and wanted to spend time with them.

But Christie still lived a very separate life from her famous dad. She even went by her stepfather’s name, growing up as Christie Gunn until she changed it back as a young adult.

“Growing up, I thought of him kind of like a favorite uncle — someone I knew absolutely loved me and would be there for me but not someone who knew who my friends were or what I was interested in,” she explained. “I would see him a handful of times a year. We went for birthdays and Christmas.”

 Instagram / Hugh Hefner

When she did visit, Christie revealed that she’d had a blast hanging out at the Playboy Mansion in Chicago, where Hugh lived until the mid-’70s before relocating to Playboy Mansion West in Los Angeles.

She explained:

It was like a child’s dream because the house had a huge game room. To me it was a game house, with a pool table and a Ping-Pong table, and you didn’t have to put quarters in the pinball machines. […] He would get the newest games, so that was the first time I saw “Pong,” “Pac-Man,” “Frogger,” and “Donkey Kong.” We’d have a lovely dinner and conversation, and then we would play games.