Karissa Shannon, a former Playboy model, has alleged that Hugh Hefner repeatedly tried to make her and her twin sister Kristina become intimate with one another during their time at the Playboy Mansion. In an exclusive interview with Page Six, she said the sisters never actually carried out his demands and instead faked the encounters.
Allegations of Pressure at the Mansion
Karissa, who moved to the Los Angeles estate with Kristina in 2008, said Hefner consistently attempted to push them toward sexual contact despite neither sister being willing. She claimed he told them that if they really loved each other they would do it together.
"He would try and force me and my sister to have sex with each other," she claimed. "Me and my sister never actually did it together. So that's a statement I want to say. Like, really, we never, never had incest[uous] sex. Like, we never did that. We faked it. We faked it every time. And it was horrible. Like, we faked it completely."
Sisters Agreed to Fake It
Karissa said the sisters, who were 18 when they arrived at the mansion, agreed between themselves to pretend to follow Hefner's demands. "Me and my sister spoke about it. ... We were like, 'Let's just fake it,'" she recalled. She claimed Hefner believed their performances were genuine and was pleased by what he thought he was witnessing.
Karissa also suggested that Hefner's widow, Crystal Harris, was aware the twins were pretending during the encounters, although Hefner himself allegedly remained oblivious. Karissa said she was taken aback that people were stunned by the suggestion of incestuous conduct. "I figured people would already have assumed that," she said.
Reflecting on Other Twins
Karissa said she began thinking about other twin sisters who had previously been part of Hefner's world, including Sandy and Mandy Bentley, prominent figures in the Playboy scene around the turn of the millennium. "Were they actually doing it?" she wondered.
She recalled seeing the sisters at a party several years after they left the Playboy scene and felt upset by how they looked. "They were very quiet," Karissa said. "I just felt so bad. I was like, 'Look at them; they just look ruined from this place.' And that's why I promised myself I wouldn't stay [at the Playboy Mansion] very long."
Life After the Mansion
Karissa and Kristina moved into the mansion in 2008 and featured in the final series of E!'s The Girls Next Door. They were named Playboy's July/August 2009 Playmates before departing the property in January 2010. The twins went on to work in the adult entertainment industry, including filming pornography together, which they previously described as a form of "survival".
They ultimately chose to leave Los Angeles and return to their native Michigan. In an interview with People last year, Karissa revealed their time at the mansion had severely affected them. "It really crumbled who we are," she said, explaining that their Christian faith had also become a source of difficulty during their time there. She added: "Kristina and I decided to move. We didn't know where to go, so we decided to go back to where we were born and leave L.A. We sold the beauty salon we owned at the time, and said, 'Let's get the hell out of here and live a simple life. Let's just start healing.'"
Hefner, who established Playboy magazine, died in September 2017 aged 91. He had been married to Harris from December 2012 until his death.
