Holly Madison’s true crime exploration continues with The Playboy Murders season 2, which premieres January 22 on Investigation Discovery. Over the course of the second season, the show will explore cases involving women connected to Playboy. Holly, who dated Playboy tycoon Hugh Hefner from 2001 to 2008, spoke exclusively with Hollywood Life about whether or not these shocking cases came up in the Playboy Mansion during her time there.
“I didn’t really talk about it too much in front of Hef because I wasn’t really sure how he would react to it,” the 44-year-old explained. “I didn’t know how close he was to all of these people, or how much she might still have feelings about it. People would talk about the Dorothy Stratten case a little bit. You’d see it incorporated into documentaries he would have made on himself when he was just talking about his life and everything that had gone on. By that time, a couple decades had passed, but being able to dive into it on the show was really interesting to me. We were able to speak to one of Dorothy’s roommates at the time, who I don’t remember ever hearing from before on any piece of media about the case. We talked to some other Playmates who knew her at the time, so it’s a lot of new impressions and new information.”
One of the season 2 episodes focuses on Jill Ann Spalding, who crossed paths with Holly at one point. “She shot a pictorial for Playboy.com, and I met her,” Holly revealed. “Years later, she had written a book about the mansion. Bridget and I were going over some things people had written about that time period for our podcasts to try and get other people’s viewpoints and how they were thinking and feeling at the time. When I was researching Jill Ann, I was shocked to find out that she had been murdered. I wanted to learn more about that and find out what happened to her because there were things about Jill Ann’s story that I could really relate to.”
Holly has been open about the toxic environment she experienced inside the Playboy Mansion. The former Playboy model noted that it was a “really high-stakes environment.” She added, “There’s a tendency for a lot of drama and sometimes, unfortunately, more serious situations just because it can be a place where you can have some really positive experiences, but it’s also a place where there’s potentially a lot to be gained. There can be a lot of competition and a lot of jealousy, and sometimes that can play itself into other bigger, more tragic events sadly.”
While researching the cases for The Playboy Murders season 2, Holly revealed it was difficult at times to be living in such an intense headspace because she had her own “dark experiences in that environment. There’d be nights sometimes where if I have a little bit too much of that subject matter on my plate. I’d have nightmares and things like that. But I think it’s important too and I enjoy telling the stories, so I just tried to pace myself.”
When looking back on her own experiences, inside and outside the Playboy Mansion, Holly admitted that she “always felt a little bit in danger just being a young woman on my own in LA. I was 19 when I first moved to LA and didn’t really know anybody.”
She continued, “You don’t know who to trust or people who want to get you involved in seedier things. I think even my decision to move into the mansion was in part driven by fear because at that time I saw it as a safe place. And of course, that took its own twists and turns for me.”
In addition to The Playboy Murders season 2, Holly is also executive producing Lethally Blonde, a new series that premieres March 25 on ID. “Lethally Blonde is a really intriguing true crime series, and I’m allowed to branch out a little bit more,” she revealed. “It’s not just Playboy-related stuff. We’re following very different cases involving people who live really interesting lives or are involved in really interesting industries. We follow a case involving a man who was in the gay porn industry, we follow a case of a woman who was escorting, and things like that. These are worlds that people are very intrigued by, and we want to get a little closer and try to understand the viewpoints of the different people involved. These cases are really exciting and really intriguing and just so interesting. I love diving in and learning more about these things.”