Guests told how the once grand but now grotty pad was a far cry from the glamorous image they had of the iconic property.
This is the Playboy mansion where Hugh Hefner hosted his legendary bashes but which guests said had become “old and stale” – littered with old mattresses, stained carpets and dog poo.
The iconic mag founder died from natural causes this week at the age of 91, after selling the property to his neighbour for a cool $100million (£75million).
The Holmby Hills estate in California is described as an “ultra-private retreat” designed for large-scale entertaining.
The Gothic-Tudor-style mansion has 29 rooms made famous by Hefner’s wild parties over the years.
A grand fountain greets guests as they arrive at the home, which the Playboy founder bought in 1971 for a then-record $1.1million (£824,000).
The spacious pad boasts a catering kitchen, wine cellar, waterfall, fitness centre, tennis court, swimming pool, cinema room, sauna and basketball court.
There are also multiple dining rooms and bedrooms.
And a four-bedroom, two-bathroom guesthouse – in addition to the 29 rooms in the main building – meant Hefner could accommodate the playmates along with his party guests.
But the once grand pad is said to have become “old and stale” in recent years as Hefner reached old age.
Former Playmates like Izabella St James have complained about the state of the mansion.
In her memoir Bunny Tales, St James – who left the house after two years in 2004 – wrote that the home was a far cry from the glamourous picture many people paint in their minds.
St James told how the image of a palatial property was shattered when she saw the old mattresses, stained carpets and piles of dog poo from Archie, the house dog at the time.
She previously said: “Every Friday morning we had to go to Hef’s room and wait while he picked up all the dog poo off the carpet.
“We then asked for our allowance — a thousand dollars counted out in crisp hundred-dollar bills from a safe in one of his bookcases.”
Another former Playboy model told the Sun on Sunday in 2015 the house was “more like an old people’s home” than a haven for wild sex.
Brit beauty Carla Howe said: “He almost never leaves home and refuses to change anything in the mansion, so the whole place feels like it’s stuck in the 1980s.
“There is no velvet or gold and all the carpets are brown and curling.”
She added: “The only phones you see are old hang-on-the-walls and there’s nothing hi-tech, even the gym equipment has been there for years.
“And because nothing has been changed in the rooms for so long, they tend to have a damp smell.
“They feel cold and unused, not cosy at all.
“The only time it looks better is when it’s decorated for parties, and there are lights everywhere, and the zoo animals are roaming about.
“But even the animals are getting old. One of the monkeys recently died aged 100.”
Nevertheless, the Playboy Mansion was legendary during its heyday – as were the star-studded bashes which were held there.
Guests over the years have included Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty, Kirk Douglas, Leonardo DiCaprio, Chris Brown, P Diddy, Eminem and Lewis Hamilton.
Hefner’s son Cooper, who is Playboy’s chief creative officer, recently took Playboy fans on a video tour of the mansion.
He showed viewers the Great Hall, where party guests would arrive after being greeted at the front door by Playboy models dressed in black bunny ears and fluffy white tails.
And he points out a famous Matisse painting, which has a cigarette stain on it after John Lennon once chose to stub his fag out on it during one of Hefner’s 1970s parties.
Cooper revealed the cinema, where a film was screened after dinner on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights.
The movie room would also double as a lounge and became a central hub for guests to mingle during parties.
But in more recent years, ex-bunnies have moaned about the “boring” film nights three times a week where Hefner would insist on playing his favourite 1950s flicks.
Cooper also took fans on a video tour of the games room, which is kitted out with a pool table and Playboy-themed pinball machines.
And he showed off the Van Room, which is designed to look like a 1970s van — fitted with a mattress under the floor and mirrors on the ceiling.
He said he would let viewers’ “minds wander” to work out why his father designed the room that way.
On the outside of the mansion, there is a zoo packed with exotic birds like peacocks, macaws, flamingos, toucans and ducks.
And a huge cage within the walls of the estate holds over 100 squirrel monkeys.
Then there is Hefner’s infamous Grotto – featuring a swimming pool in a massive cave, where Playboy models and celebs partied the night away in years gone by.
But, like many parts of the house, stories about the wet and wild party area from recent years are less than alluring.
Katie Price recently revealed she weed in the pool during a six-week stay at the mansion in her younger modelling days – adding that she refused to have sex with the Playboy founder.
Speaking during her tour in Cardiff, she said: “I went to the famous grotto and I marked my territory – I p***ed in it.”
A health and safety probe was launched in 2011 after more than 120 guests became ill after visiting the Grotto.
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health found the whirlpools contained the bacteria responsible for causing Legionnaire’s disease.
The mansion also boasts a secret room on the top floor, which was revealed in a documentary titled American Playboy: The Hugh Hefner Story.
The room is filled with videos, photos and a detailed scrapbook that Hefner kept throughout his life.
The library spanned more than 2,500 volumes in 2011, which broke a Guinness World Record for a personal scrapbook collection.
