The Girls of the Playboy Mansion series thrilled VIVA audiences in the mid-2000s. For star Kendra Wilkinson, it became a nightmare
If you think of music channels when you think of music, you haven’t experienced the 2000s. At the beginning of the new millennium, MTV, VIVA and VIVA 2 were flooded with a myriad of show formats such as Pimp My Ride, neXt and Punk’d. The reality series The Girls of the Playboy Mansion, which followed the less-than-everyday life of Playboy model Kendra Wilkinson and her colleagues behind the hedges of Hugh Hefner’s infamous mansion, was also particularly celebrated.
(Kendra Wilkinson (l.) with Holly Madison and Bridget Marquardt in The Girls of the Playboy Mansion)
What amused many at the time as innocent trashy fun was part of a nightmare for Wilkinson, as she realizes today. She spoke to People about her unhealthy lifestyle on the show and the years of depression that followed its end.
The Girls of the Playboy Mansion damaged Kenra Wilkinson’s life
In the interview, Wilkinson explained:
I felt deep remorse after the series. I had depression before and during the show. I drank a lot. I was in it for the parties [….]. Not because I wanted to be with Hugh Hefner.
She can no longer explain why she had sex with Hefner at such a young age, says the now 38-year-old Wilkinson. Decisions such as breast augmentations or bleaching her hair are also a mystery to her today. Life in the Playboy Mansion made her insecure: “I hated my breasts, my body, my face. In the end
I hated myself. […] Playboy completely ruined my life”.
The Girls of the Playboy Mansion, originally called The Girls Next Door, first aired between 2005 and 2010. Wilkinson dropped out in 2008. In the wake of the Playboy series, she appeared in her own reality formats Kendra, Kendra on Top and Kendra Sells Hollywood. The shows accompanied Wilkinson’s life as a wife and mother, and later her career as a real estate agent. But when reality success finally failed to materialize and her marriage fell apart, the battle for her mental health caught up with her.
(Kendra Wilkinson in Kendra Sells Hollywood)
“I was dying of depression,” she told People magazine about a panic attack that culminated in the late effects of her lifestyle change in 2023. “I was at the end of my life and became psychotic. […] At one point, I looked at my ex-husband and said, ‘Take me to the hospital’.”
The Girls of the Playboy Mansion is a cautionary tale for Kendra Wilkinson
It took weeks of regular therapy to finally heal her wounds. “Today, for the first time in a long time, I feel like myself again,” says Wilkinson. Looking back on her Playboy days now serves as a cautionary tale: “I don’t want my daughter to be as sexualized as I was. As a mother, I ask myself what happened that I wanted to date an older man when I was 18. What brought me to this point?” She realized that her depression could not be overcome alone. And thanks to her therapy, she finally feels strong again.
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The right way to deal with depression is one lesson that can be learned from Kendra Wilkinson’s example. The other is how to deal with the dubious innocence of reality formats like The Girls of the Playboy Mansion. If only VIVA had stuck to the music.
Telephone counseling: If you feel affected by the topic, contact the telephone counseling service immediately. Call the free hotline 0800-1110-111 or 0800-1110-222 to get help from counselors who have already been able to show you ways out of seemingly hopeless situations in many cases
