Hugh Hefner's Son Speaks Out Amid Troubling Claims About His Father

Hugh Hefner's son is speaking out about his late father to coincide with the premiere of the bombshell A&E series, "Secrets of Playboy." The series lifts the lid on what it's really like to live inside the Playboy Mansion, including interviews with those who have lived that life.

One of those sharing their thoughts is Hugh's one time main girlfriend, Holly Madison, who didn't hold back when it came to sharing her truth when it came to what life was really like in the Playboy bubble. Madison — who appeared on the E! reality show "The Girls Next Door" alongside Bridget Marquardt and Kenda Wilkinson — even described the mansion as being "cult-like" in a snippet of the show released in January.

"We were all kind of gaslit and expected to think of Hef as like this really good guy and you started to feel like, 'Oh, he's not what they say in the media, he's just a nice man,'" Madison shared. She also alleged that living in the mansion would come with a 9 p.m. curfew and claimed she and the others who lived there "were encouraged to not have friends over" and supposedly "weren't really allowed to leave unless it was, like, a family holiday."

Other insights into what life was supposedly like inside the mansion — including allegations of alleged drug use — came via Hugh former girlfriend, Sondra Theodore, and his executive assistant, Lisa Loving Barrett. Now, Hugh's son, Cooper Hefner, has something to say.

One of Hugh Hefner's sons, Cooper Hefner, spoke out about his late dad prior to the "Secrets of Playboy" premiere, defending the Playboy founder amid all the allegations hitting the headlines.

"Some may not approve of the life my Dad chose, but my father was not a liar," Cooper claimed on Twitter on January 23, one day before the A&E show premiered. "However unconventional, he was sincere in his approach and lived honestly. He was generous in nature and cared deeply for people. These salacious stories are a case study of regret becoming revenge."

Cooper's comments came shortly before the Playboy brand actually distanced itself from Hugh, the company's founder, saying in a letter shared by People, "we trust and validate women and their stories, and we strongly support the individuals who have come forward to share their experiences." It added, "As a brand with sex positivity at its core, we believe safety, security and accountability are paramount, and anything less is inexcusable" and claimed that, "Today's Playboy is not Hugh Hefner's Playboy."

Hugh died in September 2017, with Playboy paying a heartfelt tribute to him at the time. The magazine's website was changed to feature a photo of him in his youth smoking a pipe alongside the caption, "Life is too short to be living somebody else's dream" (via Independent).