The tragic downfall of Playboy’s Shannon twins, Kristine and Karissa

Everyone remembers the Playboy twins, Kristina and Karissa Shannon.

The blonde duo became “girlfriends” of the late Hugh Hefner alongside Crystal Harris, who became Crystal Hefner when she married him back in 2012.

The trio all appeared on the reality show, The Girls Next Door during the final season, which aired in 2009, after the first five seasons focused of Hefner’s girlfriends Holly Madison, Kendra Wilkinson, and Bridget Marquardt.

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And now, after Crystal released her new memoir, Only Say Good Things. Surviving Playboy and Finding Myself, and Kendra and Holly speaking about their time in the mansion, 9honey Celebrity takes a look at where the Shannon twins are now.

Warning: This story contains graphic content.

How old are the twins now?

The pair were just 18 years old when they moved into the Playboy mansion in Los Angeles and are now 34.

The girls hailed from Clearwater Beach in Florida and lived in a trailer park. Before Playboy, they reportedly did glamour modelling and waitressing.

They are identical twins.

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Their relationship with Hugh Hefner

The pair reportedly dated Hefner for 18 months, between 2008 to 2010. He married Crystal in 2012.

He died in September 2017 at the Playboy mansion at the age of 91.

”When Hef died, part of us did feel sad, but another part was like, ‘OK good, no more girls are going to be groomed and ruined like we were’. I thought Playboy was one big family – now I can see it was a cult,” Kristina previously told the Sunday Mirror.

The girls have never minced their words and claimed they were forced into group sex with the late Playboy founder and often felt “disgusted” afterwards.

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Karissa claimed she accidentally fell pregnant in 2009 at the age of 19 with Hefner’s baby, discovering the news when she was preparing for plastic surgery, but her and her sister kept the news a “secret” and she had an abortion.

“I just wanted to get rid of it as soon as possible,” she said.

“I was disgusted with my body and felt like there was an alien inside my stomach. It was like the devil was inside of me. I didn’t want anyone to know I was carrying an 83-year-old man’s child.”

They reportedly claimed on A&E’s docuseries Secrets of Playboy, that they caught an STI while in the Playboy mansion.

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Karissa, according to People, also said on the docuseries about sex with Hefner: “Every time I’ve done it with him, it’s assault.”

“To me, it’s like rape. He used control mechanisms completely through everything, so I’m happy that I had the abortion.”

People reported A&E said upon it’s release in 2022: “The vast majority of allegations have not been the subject of criminal investigations or charges, and they do not constitute proof of guilt.”

A statement from Playboy ahead of the series premiere read according to People: “We trust and validate women and their stories, and we strongly support the individuals who have come forward to share their experiences. Today’s Playboy is not Hugh Hefner’s Playboy.”

What happened to the girls?

They reportedly left the mansion in 2010 – but have claimed they have PTSD and depression from their time with Hefner.

After their time on The Girls Next Door, they went on to appear on shows including Botched, Celebrity Big Brother and Rob & Chyna.

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They have worked in the adult film industry, and now run a beauty salon in Beverly Hills together.

In 2015, they were reportedly involved in a car crash in Beverly Hills while driving a Mercedes-Benz G-wagon and taken to hospital.

The brawl and rehab

The twins made headlines in 2017 over an alleged brawl.

According to TMZ, the pair got into a ”violent brawl” with each other at their home - which led to Karissa picking up a security monitor and throwing it at her sister which knocked out her teeth.

They reportedly went to rehab last year. Kristina reported the news on her official Instagram feed in September, seemingly confirming the news.

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