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Home > News > Playboy
NEWS
By:Matt Richards
April 28 2025, Published 3:53 p.m. ET
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Playboy twins Karissa and Kristina Shannon opened up about their experience with Hugh Hefner, noting it led to substance abuse and “crumbled” their identities.
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"We always say ‘Playboy’ will always be a part of our lives,” Karissa told People. “We were ‘Playboy’ fans and we still are ‘Playboy’ fans. Even though it turned out to be very traumatic for us, there were also a lot of high points.”
Once Hugh showed favoritism toward the then-19-year old twins, they shared they were met with “extreme jealousy” from other playmates.
"We got a lot of jealousy from the other playmates because we were twins,” Kristina recalled. “We were the first twins to each get our own months, which made Playboy history. We were the youngest playmates and the youngest girlfriends.”
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Karissa remembered things similarly, sharing Hugh wanted to be in the middle of them when they were taking pictures, which made the other girls “really jealous.”
"It made Kristina cry,” she shared. “Kristina literally cried and wanted to leave the mansion when we were shooting. And I told her, 'These girls are older. They know how to play the game better. But we're pretty. We're here. We've made it this far.' And so we ended up staying and Kristina got through it, but there was so much bullying.”
Karissa noted their four-year stay at the Playboy Mansion "left a huge hole in both of our hearts and our spirits."
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"It really crumbled who we are, especially when [Hugh] took our religion away," she stated. "Our believing in Jesus became a big problem, and losing that was just really big trauma that we dealt with. We had no family that was there to back us up like a lot of the girls."
Once they moved out of the Playboy Mansion, things took a dark turn for them, as they began having substance abuse problems.
"When we moved out, we had a couple of years where we went through this individuality phase," Karissa revealed. "I feel like every set of twins goes through it, particularly in your early 20s. We were both into different things and trying to be individuals, because Hef really did force the twin thing on us, more than anyone else had ever. But we've always been extremely close. I believe we're twin flames, closer than most twins."
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"Everyone was saying we were going through our 'Anna Nicole phase,’” Kristina added. "We gained weight. There was alcohol and pills. We were really unhealthy and lost and, even at points, suicidal. We had no one. It was just us trying to figure it out after losing ourselves."
After hitting rock bottom, they returned home to figure out next steps.
"We drove the whole way without stopping until we got to Michigan,” Karissa stated. “I remember getting into Colorado and smelling that fresh air ... it was just different. Being in nature desensitized us. We ended up being diagnosed with manic depression, ADHD, bipolar disorder and generalized anxiety disorder. Being outside the city helped us slow down."
"We're still the playful twins who did Playboy, but we care about other things now,” she added, noting, “We went in our hearts, we went through our healing era, which took years. I didn't think we would ever come out of it.”
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