Why Hugh Hefner Was Terrified After Pam and Tommy’s Sex Tapes Leaked

Hugh Hefner's widow Crystal Hefner claims the Playboy mogul was terrified after Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee became victims of a high-profile sex tape leak in the '90s.

"He [Hugh] told me that he filmed all kinds of things in his bedrooms, and in his bedroom — specifically his. He had little [camera] cutouts, and that's where they would record," Crystal recently claimed in an interview, according to Fox News.

However, once Pam and Tommy's infamous sex tapes leak blew up the tabloids in 1996, Hugh ordered his security guard to destroy Hef's own private Playboy Mansion sex tapes out of paranoia and fear that they might also get stolen.

"Once the Pam and Tommy Lee tapes came out, it scared him because he had a security guard dump them all into the ocean," Crystal explained.

Pamela and Tommy's sex tapes leak was chronicled in Hulu's controversial but critically lauded 2022 miniseries Pam & Tommy, which starred Lily James and Sebastian Stan as the iconic '90s It couple.

READ MORE: Crystal Hefner Claims Animals Were Abused at Playboy Mansion

Pamela Anderson first met Hugh Hefner in 1989, when she was 22. The Canadian model-turned-actress subsequently found fame as a Playmate in the '90s, and has shot a record-breaking 14 covers for Playboy magazine throughout her career.

Speaking to Piers Morgan in 2018 about life at the Playboy Mansion, Pamela recalled how she once nearly got roped into participating in an orgy with Hef and seven other Playboy models at the mansion during a wild party.

"Everyone was naked in the grotto and the girls were ­downstairs and they all went upstairs. I followed them upstairs. I thought, ‘What could be going on up here?’ Seven girls, one at a time with Hef. I was stood at the end of the bed watching them and then I realized they were watching me. I thought, ‘This is not a movie. I need to leave.' ... I have seen a lot of ­craziness at the Playboy Mansion," she revealed.

However, Pamela also regarded Hugh in a positive light, and defended him against criticism following his death at the age of 91 in 2017.

"He's empowered so many women and broke down walls ... We exploited ourselves. We had the choice to do it, and we weren't vulnerable in that way that he was exploiting us," she told The Sunday Times in 2023.