Hugh Hefner went down in history for his relationships with countless women, but according to some close to the Playboy founder, his most "stable" relationship was with his doctor, Dr. Mark Saginor, also known as... Dr. Feelgood.
The daughter of Dr. Saginor, Jennifer, says in "Secrets of Playboy" that she grew up in the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles after her father moved there permanently to work as a personal physician and consultant to the tycoon, Hefner.
During the decades that Hefner and Dr. Saginor knew each other, according to Jennifer the relationship between the two men became "spiritual" but gradually they also shared women in the bedroom, which was also the case with others in Hefner's inner circle. The doctor's daughter spoke in an episode of the Secrets of Playboy documentary, "The Shadow Mansions," which explores allegations that Hefner and several of his friends cultivated relationships with each other by exploiting women or even trafficking aspiring actresses and models into homes created drawing "inspiration" from Hefner's Mansion.
"A lot of girls who didn't get into Hefner's Playboy system were forced into this underground circuit," Jennifer says in an episode where other former models and people who worked at the pink parties talk in detail about what they saw or experienced.
People raised the issue by clarifying that the complaints did not lead to prosecutions or prosecutorial investigations and do not constitute a certification of guilt.
For the record Hefner was married three times in his life, with his second marriage to Kimberley Conrad being his longest married life and lasting ten years from 1989 to 1999. This monogamous phase meant that the features of the soiree at the Playboy Mansion in Holmby Hills were becoming fewer and fewer. As the daughter of Dr. Mark Saginor Hefner's friends began building "smaller scale Playboy Mansion clones" around Los Angeles so they could access a "roster" of newcomers to the city, replicating the Playboy lifestyle.
Somehow, interest in the Playboy lifestyle took off in the '90s, precisely because Hefner appeared to be losing his keen interest in partying. In that decade hundreds of girls arrived in Hollywood to become the next Anna Nicole Smith, Pamela Anderson or Jenny McCarthy.
The girls were clearly drugged and not consenting. Some were videotaping them and I'm sure the footage was then used as blackmail to fall into this underground system of availability.
Jennifer Hatten, who lived in the Playboy Mansion for a long time, said in the documentary that the competition had become so high that those who did not make it often resorted to drugs. As Jennifer Saginor adds, "These girls were invited by the 'Scouts' to the imitation mansions under the guise of finding work as models. They were offered modeling contracts and made to live in these houses".
Hatten who was found at these mini-mansion parties talks about a lot of drugs, alcohol and questionable substances. "It's clear that what was going on there had nothing to do with modeling."
"There were so many men living in the same mansion that my father lived in," says Jennifer Saginor.
At one of Hefner's parties, even the 1993 Playmate of the Year, Anna Nicole Smith, "was on the menu." "That's how it all worked, even for Anna Nicole Smith, with men drinking and picking on her everywhere."
Rachel Myers, who also passed by the mansion, reports that she worked in a clothing store and to be able to enter the Mansion, she allowed older men to take pictures of her bare breasts. "These guys who frequented Hefner's parties were inspired by how to manipulate and exploit women and copied the behavior," she says. "We girls were a game of fun for all of them," she adds.
As a guest at parties in mini-mansions, the daughter of Hefner's doctor says she witnessed several fake photo shoots with girls posing naked. "These girls were clearly drugged and non-consenting. Someone was videotaping them and I'm sure the footage was then used as blackmail to get them into this underground system of availability."
"Yes, it's clear that the rich party guests were going there to have sex with these girls." She says that she was saved from sexual abuse, when at a party, an acquaintance of her father put a narcotic substance in her drink. He admits that he is possessed by "devastating guilt" that in previous years he did not ask for help or protection. She also empathizes with the girls who "believed in an opportunity to follow their dreams, when in reality it was all a window. Very quickly they crossed the lines they never thought they would cross. And once you get on that path, it's very hard to find the way out".
Soul Mates
Hefner let many celebrities and his friends stay at the mansion for days at a time. However Dr. Mark Saginor was the person really close to him.
"My father and Hef had a spiritual connection that none of his girlfriends or wives could match. They had an advanced friendship, like soulmates," Saginor continues.
Hefner's former partner, Sondra Theodore, says for her part that "they took it a step further. They weren't just close friends. They were like lovers."
Hefner himself told Bryant Gumbel, "when you've been through that crazy period, the orgy period of the '70s, then you know, there's more than a little bit of bisexuality."
"I think over time, any romantic relationship between them was about how they would impose themselves on others," says Jennifer.
He speculates that "it probably comes from their childhoods having something in common. Growing up, they were both weird, special guys who didn't date many women. So suddenly having money and recognition was something that made them want to to have control and power over these types of women in the Mansion. It was a very exciting thing for them. They wanted to manipulate girls into doing things that were outside of their 'waters'. The question between them was, 'how do we recruit more girls, how do we bring in more meat?". They wanted more and more."
This hedonism and manipulative exploitation brought Dr. Saginor in the darkest aspect of his life. "He had pictures of naked girls and him with a whip. I would ask him what he was doing and he would tell me that they wanted to be passive. "They want to be submissive," he told me," reports his daughter.
"At that time he was taking drugs and giving drugs to the girls too. I remember one unconscious girl, injecting her with something. I grew up seeing young country girls come here and end up with something they didn't recognize."
Finally in 2004 Dr. Saginor was charged with molesting a 19-year-old girl. His medical license was revoked for five years, and Hefner banned him from the Mansion.
As Jennifer recalls, the two men continued to talk on the phone but her father was constantly upset that he could not see Hef. "He felt like the scapegoat. He realized he was part of a much bigger scheme with Hefner at the center and many men involved. I now believe that the only love in Hefner's life was my father. Over the years the father He gave up his family, his medical science, just to be by his side. He gave up his personal life to be with him. I don't know many men who would do that."
After his punishment, Dr. Saginor entered rehab. The charges against him came after he was released from the clinic. Mark Saginor himself states in the documentary that he does not deny the abuse for which he was convicted, however he denies any involvement in anything else that has to do with criminal behavior.
Responding to Inside Edition, Dr. Saginor, who lives in California away from the public eye, said that what is reported in the documentary against him "is ridiculous. I have always been careful with what I prescribed".
Towards the end of Hefner's life, the two friends reconnected. "When Hefner was dying, my father was by his side," says Jennifer. Hefner died in 2017 at the age of 91.
In an official statement accompanying the documentary, Playboy's current management states that it stands unequivocally on the side of women and those who have spoken out about the abuse they have suffered, "and we want to encourage everyone to speak up and share their experiences".
No allegations against Hefner went to justice while he was alive, and his son, Cooper, rushed to his defense after the release of the first trailer for the documentary.