Karissa Shannon Claims She Aborted Hugh Hefner Baby as Twins Speak Out on Secrets of Playboy

03/29/2022 11:16 AM

The two felt "used" and "disgusted" after their first threesome with Hefner -- with Karissa saying their sexual encounters felt "like rape." Inspired by the initial episodes of A&E's "Secrets of Playboy," the Shannon Twins -- Karissa and Kristina Shannon -- "decided to finally come forward" with their own claims about Hugh Hefner for a bonus hour that aired Monday night. In it, the two sat down with reporter and one-time Playboy model Lisa Guerrero, as they opened up about their early days at the Playboy Mansion, their sexual encounters with Hefner, Karissa's alleged abortion and their "escape." The duo did their first test shoot for Playboy when they were just 18 and were called to appear on "Girls Next Door" as the show focused on the model search for the magazine's 55th anniversary. When they got to the Mansion, they felt that when it came to Holly Madison, Kendra Wilkinson and Bridget Marquardt's relationship with Hef, "all of it was for sure fake." "Hell no, you don't think an 80-year-old man is sleeping with three of these women," said Karissa. TONIGHT join me and former girlfriends of Hugh Hefner, Karissa and Kristina Shannon,as we discuss their experiences with Hefner and the Playboy empire. Don’t miss the ALL NEW #SecretsofPlayboyAE 9/8 pm on @AETV pic.twitter.com/OuPPnuwOev— Lisa Guerrero 💃🏽 (@4lisaguerrero) March 28, 2022 Eventually, Hef's original girlfriends all started to leave him, the show and the Mansion. According to the Shannons, he then wrote them a letter asking them to move in and be his new girlfriends. They took it as an invitation to be on the TV show as new cast members ... but didn't think there would be anything sexual attached to the offer. About six months later, after the other girls were transitioning out, they "realized what we got ourselves into." The two claimed that on their 19th birthday, they were invited up to Hef's room after smoking marijuana. Once there, they said he offered them a couple of pills, which they took. The duo said they were "f---ed up" and "wasted" by that point. "I just remember me being on one side of him, Karissa being on the other side of him. He was pulling our heads down, like a very hard pull, down to his penis so that we would give him oral sex," said Kristina. "And that was our 19th birthday. You're never going to forget that." "We had never done a threesome together before, we would never want to. He didn't even finish," she continued. "Just imagine his old hand, it kind of shakes touching a boob. It's gross. It's like having sex with your grandpa. He laid there looking up, 'My babies.'" Once he fell asleep, the two said they booked it for their own bedroom and took a scalding hot shower. "After that night, I didn't feel like my body was mine anymore. I felt used, disgusted," said Kristina. Added Karissa: "Both of us said he's going straight to hell. He's the devil, this is insane, we were disgusted with ourselves." The two explained they felt they had to have sex with Hefner because they needed to care for their grandmother and felt he could "take away all of the success we had built." Karissa said they "thought he would revoke our centerfold. There was no going back, we couldn't leave." The Shannons claimed that Hefner never used protection and said the women would all wipe him down between sexual partners. They also said there was "an STD that went around" the Mansion, claiming they caught chlamydia. "After we caught the STD, we said we would never have sex with him again, that was it, and we got different treatment because of that," said Kristina. While living in the Mansion, the two said there were a ton of rules that came along with it -- including a 9pm curfew and claiming they couldn't be seen with other men in public. They said he put a security detail on them as well -- claiming the guards would give Hefner a report every morning on what they did, ate and who they were hanging out with the night before. "He locked us in our bedroom. There would be a security guard sitting outside of our door," they said, comparing it to a cult. "I was a shell of a person," said Karissa, "It's like being in prison and someone breaking you in solitary confinement. You're just broken." The two said Hefner eventually told them that if they truly loved him and wanted to be his girlfriends, "then we had to have sexual encounters with him." They agreed to start having sex with him again only after he agreed to limit his encounters to ones with them and new girlfriend Crystal Hefner. "It wasn't just about the show. We thought he would send us back, he would take everything away we had got, take away the allowance and not take care of our grandmother," said Karissa. "We ended up doing it two more times and then just said we couldn't do it anymore, and that's how, later on, I ended up getting pregnant." The Shannon twins, former girlfriends of Hugh Hefner, share their emotional story with @4lisaguerrero for the first time. Tune in to an ALL-NEW #SecretsofPlayboyAE TONIGHT at 9/8c. pic.twitter.com/xOqgm05CZB— A&E (@AETV) March 28, 2022 She said she didn't think it was even possible for Hefner to get anyone pregnant because she knew Holly Madison had tried to have a child with Hef, to no avail. She found out she was expecting after getting a blood test ahead of a planned plastic surgery on her nose and breasts. "I didn't want him to know I was pregnant. I didn't want him to want me to have it. I didn't want to be stuck even more inside that bubble," she explained. "I think it's a way for him to control me even more, having me on a leash.  I felt disgusted with my body. I felt like there was something, like, like, an alien inside me. I was just grossed out." "I just wanted to get it over and done with," she said, before Karissa and Kristina laid out the complicated plan they hatched for Karissa to get an abortion. Worried about the security detail and paparazzi, they said they reached out to rapper Juicy J for help. The two claimed they had security drop them off at the mall, where the rapper picked them up from the parking lot and dropped Karissa off at a clinic. He then brought them back to the mall after, with Kristina buying lingerie to make it look like they were shopping. Shortly after, they were asked to film a new "Girls Next Door" intro, but Karissa was still bleeding and swollen from the procedure. Saying she was sick, the show ended up just filming her face and superimposing it over her sister's body for the opening credits. "Every time I've done it with him, it's assault," said Karissa, "I'm a kid. I'm 19 years old, not even old enough to drink yet." Added Kristina, "And he is just a creepy old man, with power." Karissa stands by her decision, "100%." She explained, "Everyone, to each their own. But for me it's, like, rape. He would use control mechanisms completely throughout everything, so I'm happy that I had the abortion." The Shannons said they told Hefner they wanted to break up with him, with Hef allowing them to move out of the Mansion and into the "Bunny House" across the street for a lower allowance. Still feeling like they were being controlled, they eventually left that situation as well. "We were diagnosed with PTSD and the psychiatrist said we'd have to go through a lot of therapy to unwind our brain," said Karissa, as Kristina said the two are "still dealing with it" all these years later. They said they haven't seriously dated anyone since, with Karissa saying, "We can't emotionally connect like that." They did, however, visit him one more time before his death and, despite what they'd allegedly been through, did feel bad for his deteriorating state. "We wouldn't wish the worst on anyone," said Karissa. As for why they decided to come out now, after his death, Karissa said Hef "had a powerhouse behind him" when he was alive. "He had a whole team behind him, he can hide anything, you can't even touch him. He felt untouchable," she added. "I didn't know how much power we had as young adults, we had a lot more power, but we didn't know it." On the series, A&E advises viewers that "The vast majority of allegations have not been the subject of criminal investigations or charges, and they do not constitute proof of guilt." In the wake of the new docuseries, Playboy issued a lengthy statement to E! -- saying that the company today "is not Hugh Hefner's Playboy." "We trust and validate these women and their stories and we strongly support those individuals who have come forward to share their experiences," said the company. "As a brand with sex positivity at its core, we believe safety, security, and accountability are paramount. The most important thing we can do right now is actively listen and learn from their experiences." The statement further noted that more than 80 percent of its current workforce is female, adding that the company "will never be afraid to confront the parts of our legacy as a company that do not reflect our values today." "We are committed to our ongoing evolution as a company and to driving positive change for our communities," the statement concluded. Hefner's son Cooper Hefner also tweeted out his support for his father ahead of the A&E series' premiere back in January. He didn't address the special or any specific claims directly in his statement, however. "Some may not approve of the life my Dad chose, but my father was not a liar. However unconventional, he was sincere in his approach and lived honestly," said Cooper. "He was generous in nature and cared deeply for people. These salacious stories are a case study of regret becoming revenge."