Playboy icon's rock star hubby bonked 4,800 groupies – so she burned sex pics in 'ritual'

Playboy icon Shannon Tweed married Kiss frontman Gene Simmons in spite of his wild past as a notorious womaniser.

But she insisted any evidence of his past conquests – of which there were many – had to be destroyed.

Simmons is said to have bonked a staggering 4,800 groupies in his time and has admitted to having the Polaroid snaps to prove it.

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However, he said he and Shannon, a former Playmate of the Year who turns 66 today (March) bid them farewell in a ‘ritual’ bonfire.

Shannon, one of the most successful erotic cinema actresses of all time, was Playboy’s Playmate of the Year in 1982.

She dated magazine mogul Hugh Hefner and lived in the famous Playboy Mansion for over a year.

And it was there that she met her now-husband, Kiss hell-raiser Gene.

By the time they started a relationship in 1983, Gene had already had sex with close to 5,000 groupies, according to reports.

After 28 years of dating, in 2011 they finally decided to make things official – but his Polaroids had to go.

Gene, 73, admitted the bonfire at their Los Angeles home took days to burn out.

Since 1974, Kiss have had more gold albums than any other American band, but Gene said that his Crazy Nights never involved drugs, just sex, lots of sex.

Speaking to The Sun in 2016, he said: “I didn’t do drugs in the crazy times but I did do sex. Did I sleep with 4,800 women? So they tell me.

“I did have the Polaroids to prove it, oh yes. But most of them were burned. Shannon and I got together with them and we had a ritual.”

As the frontman of hard rock band Kiss, Gene has spat blood and breathed fire — daubed in the band’s iconic face paint — for more than four decades.

And with the help of the freakishly long tongue he flashes on stage, he racked up conquests even faster than the band racked up gold albums.

But Gene insists his days of wild sex with groupies are long behind him, and, despite the multiple gold records hanging off his walls, says his biggest achievement is his family.

He said: “I never knew what a big deal it was before Shannon and I had kids. I never cared about it, I didn’t want to get married or have kids. But when they were born I was at the hospital crying like a 12-year-old girl.

“Have Kiss sold millions of records? Yes. Are we are the luckiest b******s in the world? You’re goddam right we are.

“I feel like the man on top of the highest mountain in the world, shouting out at the top of his lungs, ‘Isn’t this great. How did we get up here?’ But my kids are more important.”

Gene, who says he’s only ever got high in a dentist’s chair, is clear on what he thinks about stars snuffed out before their time.

He says: “With drugs, you reap what you sow. I’d understand if drugs made you smarter, run faster, made your d**k bigger. But they don’t.

“So I think it’s f*****g pathetic that Michael Jackson, Jimi Hendrix, Prince, Amy Winehouse all died because of them.

He added: “No one came into their houses and shot them dead. No, they killed themselves. They were talented but they weren’t around to enjoy what they achieved.”

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Shannon and Gene have two children together, Nick, 34, and Sophie, 30. And she is clearly still a fan of her husband’s work.

She said: “The best Kiss concert I’ve ever been to was…my wedding.”

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Source: Celebrities - dailystar.co.uk