Where Is Barbi Benton Now? What We Know About Hugh Hefner's Ex

Where is Barbi Benton now? The former Playmate dated Hugh Hefner for nine years ahead of their breakup, but they remained shut till his death.

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Holly Madison, Bridget Marquardt, and Kendra Wilkinson made their television debut as Hugh Hefner’s girlfriends in 2009. But earlier than The Girls Next Door — there was once Barbi Benton. A&E’s Secrets of Playboy main points the lifetime of the famed bachelor and the ladies he allegedly abused. According to Barbi, she wasn’t certainly one of them.

Over the years, Hugh’s ex-lover has defended the past due editor-in-chief towards accusations from her fellow Playmates. Though the 2 by no means tied the knot, they dated for 9 years and remained shut until his death.

But where is Barbi Benton now? Here’s what we know.

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Where is Barbi Benton now? Her friendship with Hugh Hefner lasted long after their breakup.

Although Hugh later regretted now not marrying Barbi, it didn’t take long for the playboy to transport on after their break up. That identical year, he started dating Sondra Theodore. Later, Barbi went on to marry George Gradow, an actual estate developer who's price $50 million these days. Together, the couple share two kids — Alexander (35) and Ariana (33). They have homes in Aspen, Colo., and Los Angeles.

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In 2012, Barbi offered a tour in their mansion within the mountains on HGTV’s Million Dollar Room, despite the fact that she has since just about retired from the highlight.

According to Barbi, despite their breakup, she and Hugh were shut till he died of sepsis in September 2017. In an interview, Barbi said that she visited her ex in a while before his demise. “When he died, he took a big piece of me with him,” she shared.

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Though he has won a substantial amount of criticism over the last decade, her loyalty hasn’t faltered.

She added, “I’m certain that each and every time I do something, I’ll think about having carried out it with Hef. He had an enormous impact on tradition and lives of people everywhere the sector. I’ll pass over him immensely.”

Hugh was once 42 and Barbi was an 18-year-old student at UCLA when they first met.

Barbi met Hugh — who used to be greater than two decades her senior — when she used to be a scholar at UCLA.

Barbi advised People of her ex-lover, “The first thing he asked me used to be if I would mind if he held my hand. I advised him I had never been out with anyone over 24 and he stated, ‘Neither have I!’ I checked out him like, Is he joking, or is it true?”

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Later, their courting were given severe — but not essentially unique. Hugh it sounds as if had strict rules for the ladies that he dated that posed an obtrusive double usual. Although Barbi didn’t trust Hugh’s standpoint, she obliged.

“I don't believe his rules. I think that the lady has each right to do the whole lot that the man has that same right to do,” a tender Barbi explained right through an interview excursion of the Playboy mansion. “But Hef was once brought up in an generation where women do not fool around, guys do. And you know, I reside through that.”

Watch Secrets of Playboy on Mondays at Nine p.m. EST on A&E.

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