Hugh Hefner’s widow demands investigation into Playboy founder’s foundation over alleged scrapbooks with explicit photos

By Karina Tsui, CNN

(CNN) — The widow of “Playboy” founder Hugh Hefner has called for an investigation into her late husband’s foundation, which she alleges possesses his personal scrapbooks and diary containing troves of highly sensitive information and explicit photographs of women and, “possibly,” underage girls.

The announcement was made Tuesday at a news conference held by high-profile women’s rights attorney Gloria Allred, who is representing Crystal Hefner in regulatory complaints filed in two different states against the Hugh M. Hefner Foundation.

Hefner said she believes the foundation has about 3,000 of her late husband’s personal scrapbooks, containing thousands of nude images, involving sexual activity and intimate moments.

“The materials span decades beginning in the 1960s. And may include images of girls who were underage at the time and could not consent to how their images would be retained or controlled,” Hefner said.

“They may also contain images of women who did not consent to their images being taken in the first place,” she added.

Some of the images, Allred said, may have been taken while the women were intoxicated.

“It is critical for the public to understand that I am not referring to images that appeared in magazines,” Hefner said. “My focus is on how Hugh Hefner’s personal scrapbooks chronicled private moments that took place behind closed doors.”

The attorney said she had filed regulatory complaints with the attorney’s general offices of California, where the Hugh Hefner lived, and Illinois, where the foundation is headquartered, to request an investigation into how the images are being handled and stored in an effort to prevent any potential distribution of the images.

Allred displayed copies of the two regulatory complaints during the news conference. CNN has reached out to Allred’s office and California Attorney General’s Office.

A spokesperson for the Illinois Attorney’s General Office said it has received the complaint and is reviewing it.

It’s not clear how the foundation would have gained access to the scrapbooks. Hefner said she was told the scrapbooks are in “a storage facility in California,” but she was previously told some could be inside a private residence “to be scanned and digitized,” expressing concern they could be sold or lost in a data leak.

“Crystal did not consent to having her intimate images stored by and accessible to the foundation, and we believe that many of the other women and or girls depicted did not consent either,” Allred said Tuesday.

Hefner said she was removed as chief executive officer and president of the Hugh M. Hefner Foundation Monday after she refused to resign when asked to do so.

“The concerns I raised about consent, safety, and security were ignored,” Hefner said. “Though I declined to resign my position yesterday in direct response to my escalating concerns regarding the handling of private photos contained in the scrapbooks, I was unilaterally removed.”

The Hugh M. Hefner Foundation did not reply to multiple requests for comment. CNN reached out to the foundation’s staff and board of directors for comment about Crystal Hefner’s departure and her allegations.

On its website, the foundation says it is a philanthropic organization that “supports and funds today’s pioneers defending civil rights and liberties with special emphasis on First Amendment rights and rational sex and drug policies.”

Allred told reporters they don’t know if the material is being digitized but is calling on those attorney’s general to investigate.

No evidence supporting any of Allred or Hefner’s claims was provided at the news conference.

“This is not about money. I am seeking dignity, safety and the destruction of non-consensual intimate materials so that the exploitation does not continue under the banner of philanthropy,” Hefner said.

“Thousands of women may be affected. This is a civil rights issue. Women’s bodies are not property, not history, and not collectibles,” she added.

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CNN’s Maria Aguilar Prieto contributed to this report.