Playboy founder Hugh Hefner built his empire in the 50s with an infamous gentleman’s club and stacks of magazines in newsagents across the world.
Seven decades later, certain Playboy bunnies are more famous than the founder himself, rising through the ranks after donning the legendary bunny ears.
Unlike the Playboy Playmates, the bunnies themselves didn’t necessarily pose nude, but attended events and worked at the club in the signature corset and bunny-tail.
Celebs like Debbie Harry and Lauren Hutton got their start by waitressing as a Playboy bunny before moving on to other careers.
Others, like Kendra Wilkinson and Holly Madison, rose to fame on the E! Network reality show The Girls Next Door, which offered a sneak-peek inside the mansion.
But where are these iconic Playboy bunnies today?
Holly Madison
Holly’s memoir, Down the Rabbit Hole: Curious Adventures and Cautionary Tales of a Former Playboy Bunny, caused a stir in the world of Playboy (Image: FilmMagic)
Star of The Girls Next Door, Holly Madison was Hugh Hefner’s number one girlfriend throughout the filming of the E! reality show.
Living in the Playboy mansion, the 40-year-old beauty dated the Playboy mogul for seven years, before splitting up in 2008.
She later launched her own reality show, Holly’s World, which showed her work as a burlesque dancer at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas.
Holly’s 2015 memoir Down the Rabbit Hole: Curious Adventures and Cautionary Tales of a Former Playboy Bunny exposed the reality of her life as a Playboy Bunny.
Holly is a proud mum-of-two today, with a young son and daughter (Image: AFP/Getty Images)
Making it to the top spot on the New York Times bestseller list, the book described how Hefner controlled her finances and made her stick to a strict curfew every night.
Holly later married businessman Pasquale Rotella in a romantic Disneyland ceremony, but the two decided to end their marriage in 2018.
Today, Holly is a proud animal welfare campaigner and is mum to two kids, Rainbow Aurora Rotella, seven, and Forest Leonardo Antonio Rotella, three.
Debbie Harry
Debbie Harry worked as a Playboy Bunny for a lengthy stint before her music career took off (Image: AFP)
Debbie Harry is better known today as punk rock icon Blondie, but she has a surprising Playboy past.
After graduating high school in New Jersey, the 74-year-old moved to New York City to launch her singing career.
She landed a number of gigs to support herself, working as a secretary for BBC radio and becoming a go-go dancer at a discotheque.
From 1968 to 1973, she worked at the NYC Playboy Club as a bunny, waitressing in a corset with the fluffy cotton-tail attached at the rear.
Debbie Harry is one of the pioneers of the punk rock music scene today (Image: PA)
Debbie later praised the experience, saying it meant women could “make money and also be really valued as employees. Bunnies were the Playboy Club”.
Soon after, she rose to fame as a songstress, with hit titles like Heart of Glass and Call Me.
Continuing to create work to this day, her most recent album, Pollinator, was released in 2017, and last year she penned a memoir titled Face It.
Kendra Wilkinson
Kendra said goodbye to the Playboy Mansion in 2008 after her engagement (Image: WireImage)
The youngest of the trio, Kendra Wilkinson was Hugh Hefner’s third girlfriend throughout filming of The Girls Next Door.
She left the Playboy Mansion in 2008 when she met her husband-to-be, American football star Hank Baskett.
Speaking about her time in the house in a 2018 interview with The New York Post, the 34-year-old admitted: “I moved in and weeks went by and I didn’t know that sex was involved. I knew nothing about Playboy, I’d just graduated high school.”
The mum-of-two went on to put her name to two successful reality shows – Kendra and Kendra On Top.
Kendra has put her name to two reality spin-off shows since leaving the mansion (Image: Getty Images)
In 2010, a video of Wilkinson engaging in a sexual act was acquired by Vivid Entertainment, who tried to sell it as “Kendra Exposed”.
The reality star threatened to sue the pornographic production company if they distributed the flick.
In 2018, Kendra and Hank finalised their divorce, with the two co-parenting their children – son Hank IV, 10, and daughter Alijah Mary, five.
Dorothy Stratten
Dorothy was awarded Playmate of the Year several months before her death (Image: Bettmann Archive)
Playmate Dorothy Stratten met a tragic fate after her Playboy debut when she was killed in a murder-suicide by her estranged husband.
Modelling for the magazine, the Canadian beauty was voted Playmate of the Year in 1980 and embarked on an acting career on the side.
At just 20 years old, she had already starred in several films and TV shows before her premature death.
Several Playboy staff members had reportedly expressed concerns about Dorothy’s relationship with her husband and manager Paul Snider.
Dorothy was tragically shot to death by her estranged husband Paul Snider (Image: Bettmann Archive)
Months before her death, she travelled to New York to film They All Laughed, where she fell in love with the director Peter Bogdanovich.
On August 14, her estranged husband Paul murdered her when she asked for a divorce, later turning the gun on himself.
Two films, Death of a Centerfold: The Dorothy Stratten Story and Star 80, have been made about Dorothy’s tragic life.
Eight years after Dorothy’s death, Bogdanovich, then 49, married her little sister Louise, who had just turned 20.
The couple’s divorce was finalised in 2001.
Gloria Steinem
Gloria went undercover as Marie Catherine Ochs to expose the Playboy Club’s seedy underbelly (Image: Bettmann Archive)
Gloria Steinem’s path to becoming a Playboy bunny was a unique one after she went undercover for a job as a reporter in 1963.
Then aged 29, the feminist author got a gig as a bunny at the NYC Club, going undercover as waitress Marie Catherine Ochs.
Titled A Bunny’s Tale, the article was published in Huntington Hartford’s Show magazine, investigating the exploitation of women in the clubs.
Gloria is a historic leader of the women’s movement in the US (Image: Getty Images for HISTORY)
She highlighted the long hours the bunnies would work for little money, and the sexual demands made of them by male patrons.
Gloria revealed she struggled to get work after the article was published, explaining “because I had now become a bunny – and it didn’t matter why”.
Today, the 86-year-old is a spokeswoman for women’s rights and is globally recognised as a leader of the American feminist movement of the 20th century.
Bridget Marquardt
Bridget rose to fame on The Girls Next Door along with Holly Madison and Kendra Wilkinson (Image: FilmMagic)
The second girlfriend to Hefner on E!’s The Girls Next Door, Bridget Marquardt moved into the Playboy Mansion in 2002.
The 46-year-old auditioned to become a Playboy model twice but settled with her status as a girlfriend in the infamous mansion.
Due to the success of The Girls Next Door, Bridget’s dream to appear in Playboy came true, as the girlfriends appeared in several centre-folds throughout the noughties.
Leaving the house after seven years, Bridget started dating film producer – and son to famous astronaut Scott Carpenter – Nicholas Carpenter.
Bridget works as a celebrity paranormal investigator today (Image: NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images)
Nicholas popped the question in 2015, though the two have yet to walk down the aisle.
Her cat Gizmo, who was a beloved character on The Girls Next Door, sadly passed away five years ago.
In an unexpected career change, Bridget has become a “celebrity paranormal investigator,” and hosts a podcast about ghosts.
Titled Ghost Magnet with Bridget Marquardt, she interviews paranormal experts to investigate the spiritual world.
Lauren Hutton
Lauren worked briefly as a Playboy Bunny before her modelling career took off (Image: AFP)
Supermodel Lauren Hutton is an icon of the 70s and 80s, becoming one of the world’s most famous faces after fronting dozens of campaigns.
Before she launched her career as a model, the 76-year-old beauty briefly worked as a waitress at the Playboy Club in NYC’s Manhattan.
In a 2007 interview with Esquire, she opened up about the experience, saying: “I was a Playboy bunny for three months. It was a good experience because it taught me p***y power.
(Image: Getty Images Europe)
“I told Henry Kissinger, ‘No high p***y for you!'”
In the years that followed, Lauren enjoyed a hugely successful career as a model and actress, continuing to appear in fashion campaigns to this day.
Living in New Mexico, Lauren is a keen motorcyclist, and is the original chair for the Guggenheim Museum Motorcycle Club.
Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk
