Hugh Hefner Net Worth 2024

What was Hugh Hefner’s net worth?

Hugh Hefner was an American entrepreneur best-known for being the founding father of Playboy journal. At the time of his loss of life in September 2017, Hugh Hefner had a net worth of $50 million. The Chicago native started his skilled profession as a author for Esquire Magazine, after which mortgaged his furnishings and took out a mortgage with a purpose to begin his personal journal known as, Playboy.  The first challenge, which featured nude pictures of Marilyn Monroe that have been taken almost 5 years earlier, was revealed in 1953.  It bought 50,000 copies, and the Playboy machine was up and working.  Fast-forward a couple of a long time and Playboy Magazine had grown into Playboy Enterprises a profitable media empire that features Playboy Magazine, Playboy TV, Playboy Online, three hardcore networks – Club Jenna, Spice Digital Networks, and Adult.com, and a licensing arm that controls the place, when, and the way the Playboy brand and model are used.

Wealth History

Hugh Hefner’s funds ebbed and flowed fairly considerably over the a long time. At the time of his loss of life, Hefner was value $50 million. IN the mid-Nineties Hefner was value $200 million.

At the corporate’s peak within the late Sixties/early Nineteen Seventies, the enterprise was producing tens of tens of millions of {dollars} in revenue due to a booming empire that included golf equipment and casinos. Unfortunately Hugh was gradual to adapt to the digital world and the retreat from bodily magazines. At the time of his loss of life, the corporate was a shell of its former self, largely working as an mental property licensing enterprise.

The firm carried out particularly poorly within the final 15 years of his life as journal gross sales on the whole diminished enormously. In the interval between 2000 and 2010, Playboy’s inventory worth fell 80%. The firm was taken personal in 2011 by Hefner and personal fairness agency Icon Acquisition Holdings. Another personal fairness agency known as Rizvi Traverse finally purchased out Icon.

At the time of his loss of life, Hefner owned 35% of the Playboy model and 100% of what was left of the print journal.

Most individuals assumed that Hefner owned the well-known Playboy mansion, when actually he didn’t. For most of its historical past, the mansion was owned by Playboy Enterprises. Hefner paid an annual charge to cowl hire and different bills like meals and events. In typical years, that hire got here to round $1 million.

The mansion was bought in June 2016 to then 32-year-old Daren Metropoulos for $100 million. Daren is the son of C. Dean Metropoulos who’s a billionaire personal fairness tycoon well-known for reviving manufacturers similar to Hostess, Bumble Bee Tuna, Pabst Blue Ribbon and Chef Boyardee. One of the stipulations of the sale was that Hefner can be allowed to dwell within the mansion for the remainder of his life. So one can assume that is bitter/candy information for Daren Metropoulos.

Early Life

Hugh Hefner was born in Chicago, Illinois on April 9, 1926. He was the primary youngster of Glenn Lucius Hefner and Grace Caroline Hefner. They have been from Nebraska and labored as an accountant and a instructor, respectively. He has one youthful sibling, Keith. Hefner attended Sayre Elementary School and Steinmetz High School. After highschool, Hugh served from 1944-1946 as a U.S. Army author for a army newspaper. Hefner graduated from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana in 1949. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a double minor in Creative Writing and Art in simply two and a half years. He did one semester of graduate courses in Sociology at Northwestern however dropped out.

Playboy Magazine

In 1952, Hefner was working as a copywriter for Esquire journal. He inquired a couple of $5 increase and when he was denied, he give up his job. The following 12 months, he took out a mortgage mortgage of $600 and raised $8,000–together with $1,000 from his mom–from buyers to launch gentleman’s journal with the notorious centerfold, Playboy (initially, he was going to name the journal Stag Party.) The first challenge was revealed in December 1953, nearly a 12 months to the date after he give up Esquire. The first cowl and centerfold was Marilyn Monroe, taken from her 1949 nude calendar shoot. The challenge bought over 50,000 copies and bought for 50 cents apiece. Charles Beaumont’s science fiction story, The Crooked Man, (having been rejected from Esquire) was revealed within the first challenge. Hefner had produced the journal in his Hyde Park Kitchen.

Hefner served because the chief artistic officer of Playboy Enterprises, which is the publishing group that operates the journal. Hugh promoted a way of life of luxurious in his journal and within the tv reveals he hosted, Playboy’s Penthouse from 1959-1960 and Playboy After Dark from 1969-1970.

In June 1963, Hefner was arrested for selling obscene supplies after publishing a problem of Playboy that includes nudes pictures of Jane Mansfield in mattress with a person. The case went to trial and the outcome was a hung jury.

Hugh created “personal key” golf equipment that have been racially various throughout the civil rights motion. In 1966, Hefner despatched Alex Haley (an African American man) to interview George Lincoln Rockwell, who had based the American Nazi Party. Rockwell had agreed to be interviewed by Haley, solely after gaining assurance he was not Jewish, and Rockwell reportedly saved a handgun on the desk throughout the complete interview. The historic interview was reenacted within the tv sequence Roots: The Next Generations in 1979, with James Earl Jones taking part in Haley and Marlon Brando as Rockwell. Brando ended up successful an Emmy Award for his portrayal of Rockwell. Haley additionally interviewed Malcolm X in 1963 and Martin Luther King Junior in 1966. Strangely, all three interviewees had been assassinated by 1968.

The journal has continued to publish brief tales by well-known novelists similar to Arthur C. Clarke, Ian Fleming, Chuck Palahniuk, Roald Dahl, Margaret Atwood, Shel Silverstein, and numerous others. In 1953, the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury was revealed and serialized in 1954 problems with Playboy.

Although the journal reached its peak within the ’70s and moved from a month-to-month journal to a quarterly one in 2019, it nonetheless continues to get pleasure from recognition and circulation.

Playboy Mansion

The 21 thousand sq. foot Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles, California is the place Hugh lived from 1974 till his loss of life in 2017. The mansion turned well-known within the 70s for the lavish events Hugh would throw, attended by celebrities and socialites. The mansion boasts an astonishing 29 rooms, a wine cellar, a movie show, three zoos, tennis and basketball courts, a waterfall and a number of swimming pools.

Interestingly, most individuals assume Hugh himself really owned the well-known Playboy mansion, however actually he didn’t. Playboy Enterprises owned the home and Hefner paid an annual charge to cowl hire and different bills like meals and events. In typical years, that hire got here to round $1 million. And sure, that additionally consists of the room and board for Hefner’s live-in girlfriends.

In January 2016, Playboy Enterprises introduced that it had put the mansion up on the market for $200 million. A comparable home in the identical neighborhood would probably be value $60 – $80 million, so it is a hefty premium… however there’s just one Playboy Mansion on the earth! The mansion was purchased in June 2016 for $110 million by Daren Metropoulos. Daren, who was 32 on the time of Hefner’s loss of life, is the son of billionaire businessman C. Dean Metropoulos. His father is well-known for reviving sagging manufacturers like Hostess, Bumble Bee Tuna, Pabst, and Chef Boyardee. As of April 2020, the Playboy Mansion is present process intensive renovations.

In 2022, the “Secrets of Playboy” 12-part miniseries premiered on A&E through which former staff got here ahead to make claims of systematic sexual misconduct and manipulation, blackmail, videotaping with out consent, rape, and unlawful intercourse with minors by Hefner and his movie star pals and company.

Personal Life

Hefner married highschool sweetheart Mildred Williams in 1949. Before their wedding ceremony, Mildred confessed to Hefner that she’d had an affair whereas he was within the Army. He has mentioned publicly that the admission was devastating. Reportedly, Mildred allowed him to sleep with different girls out of guilt for her personal infidelity. The two cut up in 1959. They had two children collectively, Christie and David. After the divorce, Hef remade himself as a “man about city,” consistent with the approach to life he promoted in Playboy. He admitted to being concerned with eleven out of twelve months’ value of Playmates. After a minor stroke at age 58 in 1985, Hefner toned down his life-style and married Kimberley Conrad who was 36 years his junior. They had two sons, Marston and Cooper Hefner. They formally divorced in 2010, however had been separated for over a decade. He married a 3rd spouse, Crystal Harris (now Hefner) and so they have been collectively from 2012 till his loss of life.

In July 2023, it was revealed that Hefner’s widow, Crystal Harris, is about to disclose the “poisonous” actuality of the Playboy Mansion in her upcoming memoir, “Only Say Good Things.”

Appearances

Hugh Hefner voiced himself in a 1993 episode of The Simpsons, Krusty Gets Kancelled. Hefner additionally visitor starred as himself in a 2000 episode of Sex and the City. In 2005, he guest-starred on Entourage and Curb Your Enthusiasm. Other tv visitor appearances embrace Robot Chicken, Family Guy, and Miss March. He has made a number of visitor appearances in movies as effectively. From 2005 to 2010, Hugh created and appeared usually in a actuality present about his life and his many girlfriends who lived with him on the Playboy Mansion: The Girls Next Door.

2009 Net Worth Estimate

According to paperwork filed in 2009 as a part of a divorce, Hugh Hefner estimated his personal net worth to be $43 million. At the height of Playboy, Hefner’s net worth was over $200 million. Unfortunately, the corporate didn’t carry out effectively during the last 10-15 years as journal gross sales have diminished quickly. In the interval between 2000 and 2010, Playboy’s inventory worth fell 80%. The firm was taken personal in 2011 by Hefner and personal fairness agency Icon Acquisition Holdings. Another personal fairness agency known as Rizvi Traverse finally purchased out Icon. At the time of his loss of life, Hefner owned 35% of the Playboy model and 100% of the particular journal.

Here is how Hefner broke down his personal funds in a courtroom submitting again in 2009:

Monthly earnings:

• Salary from Playboy: $116,667
• Social Security: $1,896
• Dividends and curiosity: $121,099
• Rental property: $17,058
• Income from HMH Productions: $15,808
• Pensions and retirement: $413
• Other miscellaneous earnings: $17,639

Total month-to-month earnings: $290,580

Other Assets:

• $306,548 in money
• $36,802,558 in shares and bonds
• $6,122,990 in a joint account with an unnamed individual

Total belongings (together with Playboy inventory and property): $43,232,096

And this is how Hugh spent his tens of millions per thirty days:

• Rent (together with groceries, family provides, utilities, cellular phone and e mail): $53,593
• Food (approximate): $18,000
• Entertainment: $25,000
• College bills for youths: $10,130
• Health care: $3,215

Related Post: How much do Playboy Playmates make?

Death

On September 27, 2017, Hugh died on the Playboy Manson in Holmby Hills, Los Angeles. He was 91. The reason for loss of life was sepsis that was introduced on by an E. coli an infection.

Hugh Hefner is entombed in a crypt on the Westwood Village Memorial Park Cemetery. Directly subsequent to him lies the crypt of Marilyn Monroe. He paid $75,000 in 1992 for the suitable to be buried subsequent to Monroe. He informed the Los Angeles Times in 2009, “Spending eternity subsequent to Marilyn is a chance too candy to cross up.”

It ought to be famous that Hefner by no means met Monroe. Despite arguably launching his profession off her nude pictures, some would say towards her will, the 2 by no means really met.