Crystal Hefner is starting off the new year with a clean slate. The former Playboy Bunny and widow of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner took to Instagram to share that she has made some major changes in her life, including removing “everything fake” from her body and deleting all of the “scantily clad” photos from her social media accounts.
“I removed everything fake from my body and deleted all my old photos. I am more authentic, vulnerable and feel that I belong more to myself. I am mine,” Hefner explained in a lengthy Instagram post alongside a black and white selfie.
In the caption of the post, the model explains that after years of living for others’ approval while jeopardizing her well-being, she has been focused on showing her followers the real her. “I was living for other people before, to make others happy, suffering internally in the process.”
“As most of you know, I grew my following during my “Playboy” years. Certain photos grow followings fast. In short, sex sells,” Hefner continued. “I don’t know whether I felt empowered by dressing scantily clad, showing cleavage, etc …or if I just felt it was expected of me or what… but now I can confidently and 100% proudly say, modesty is what empowers me these days, and because it feels so much better internally, it will probably be this way for the rest of my life.”
Hefner’s post comes just over a year after she opened up about a fat transfer procedure that almost cost her her life, revealing that she lost half the blood in her body and needing a blood transfusion after the 2020 procedure. In the Instagram post, she admitted that she finally learned her lesson and called out the unrealistic beauty standards that lead women to such extremes to begin with.
“How our culture defines beauty makes it impossible to keep up with. Women are overly sexualized. I know from the worst kind of experience. For ten years my value was based on how good my physical body looked. I was rewarded and made a living based on my outer appearance,” she wrote. “To this day I need to write reminders of why I’m worthy that have nothing to do with my physical appearance to convince myself that I’m enough.”
In 2016, Hefner had her breast implants removed, claiming they had slowly poisoned her and caused debilitating illness, uncontrollable back pain, cognitive dysfunction, fatigue, and more. She has since been encouraging other women who are looking to alter their bodies to their research and consider other options.
As she explained in her January 10 post, Hefner finally feels that people are “invested in my life in a positive way” and that she now has “an army of supporters that care and see an actual soul behind the lens.”
“If you follow for insight into my past life, my new one, my travels, my health hurdles, lifestyle, you name it… thank you. I will make it my mission to try and help in all ways that I can while staying true to myself. I hope all of you can stay true to yourself and to what feels right for you as well, because there’s a certain power you get from that you can’t find anywhere else. I love you.”
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