What Crystal Hefner's Relationship With Her Stepsons Is Like Today

Crystal Hefner, the former Playboy Playmate, was the third and final wife of the late Playboy magnate Hugh Hefner. In addition to being Mrs. Hefner, Crystal also took on the role of stepmother, as Hugh had four children in total — three sons and a daughter. The couple, meanwhile, had no kids of their own. Hugh's first marriage to Mildred Williams, lasting from 1949 to 1959, resulted in two kids, David and Christie Hefner. He went on to marry Kimberly Conrad, a model, in 1989, the same year she was chosen as the Playboy Playmate of the Year. 

They also welcomed two children, Marston and Cooper Hefner, born in 1990 and 1991, respectively. After Hugh's divorce from Conrad in 2009, the Playboy founder married Crystal in 2012. At the time, Marston was 22 and Cooper was 21. Given their relatively small age difference (Crystal was born in 1986), it's likely that she wasn't perceived as a traditional mother figure. 

The same can surely be said of David and Christie, who in contrast are both over 30 years older than Crystal. The details of Hugh's kids' relationships with their father's wife remain unclear, but Crystal appears to have maintained a strong connection to Marston at the very least. Cooper, on the other hand, may have distanced himself from his stepmother entirely. 

Crystal Hefner welcomed her stepson, Marston Hefner, to the first segment of her YouTube podcast, "Beneath the Surface," where she discusses different topics with various figures that have impacted her life. At the beginning of the episode, which was recorded in 2023, Crystal acknowledged that she hadn't seen Marston in six years. They recalled the last time they were together, which was on a family trip to Disneyland in 2017, following Hugh Hefner's passing. In addition to Marston and Crystal, David, Christie, and Cooper Hefner were also present at the family get-together.

Throughout their conversation, it was clear that Marston and Crystal don't typically stay in touch. At one point, the former Playboy Playmate even shared how she'd heard that Marston got married and had a child, meaning he didn't directly keep her in the loop even on bigger developments. However, despite the apparent lack of regular communication, Crystal and Marston reconnected easily on the podcast. They touched upon Crystal's relationship with Hugh, with the model opening up about how she really felt about the controversial mogul. 

Recalling the first time she saw Hugh, Crystal noted, "He was very nice. He was very magnetic," adding, "I felt like I was in this magnetic pull." The duo also reminisced about the Playboy founder's legacy and even admitted that they would love to still be living with each other in the notorious Playboy Mansion. At the end of their trip down memory lane, Marston and Crystal reaffirmed their love for each other, indicating there's no bad blood between them.

Conversely, Cooper Hefner appears to have a strained relationship with Crystal Hefner. Following the airing of "Secrets of Playboy" in 2022, a documentary revealing the empire's shocking hidden truths, Holly Madison, another former Playboy Playmate and ex-girlfriend of Hugh Hefner, publicly criticized the magnate. Madison claimed that Hugh possessed several of her nude photos, which made her fear that he might leak them to the public if she ever left the Playboy Mansion.

Responding to the scandalous allegations on X, formerly known as Twitter, Hugh's widow, Crystal, confirmed the photos indeed existed. She tweeted, "I immediately ripped them up and destroyed every single one of them for you and the countless other women in them." The situation seemed to trigger Cooper, who took to his own account to assert, "These salacious stories are a case study of regret becoming revenge." Furthermore, in 2022, Crystal shared an emotional Instagram post, hinting at her memoir, "Only Say Good Things: Surviving Playboy and Finding Myself." 

In the caption, she wrote, "I was exploited like never before [at the Playboy Mansion]." Although neither Crystal nor Cooper has openly criticized the other, it seems unlikely that Cooper was happy about Crystal's public statements about his late father and his treasured company. Notably, they do not follow each other on social media, while Crystal and Marston Hefner do.