Hugh Hefner allegedly had a romantic relationship with his personal physician, Dr. Mark Saginor, the doctor’s daughter said earlier this week. Jennifer Saginor, who is also prominently featured in the A&E documentary Secrets of Playboy, claimed her father’s relationship with the Playboy founder lasted for almost 40 years. Jennifer also opened about the darker side of life in the Playboy Mansion.
“I am saying that Hefner and my father were soul mates,” Jennifer told Inside Edition on Monday. “In my opinion, this was the love of Hefner’s life and the love of my father’s life.” She later claimed Saginor saw Hefner “on a regular basis” and it was “just natural for him to have a room” at the Playboy Mansion. She believes her father and Hefner had a “spiritual and emotional” relationship that endured even as Hefner publicly had relationships with women.
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Saginor earned the nickname “Dr. Feelgood” at the Playboy Mansion and allegedly gave out prescription pills. Jennifer claims she lived at the mansion until she went to college, describing it as a “magical” environment where exotic animals roamed. “Once I actually lived there, the butlers would make me lunch in the morning and the house limo would drop me at school,” she claimed, adding that she was introduced to drugs at a young age.
Jennifer also told Inside Edition that Saginor was the only person with Hefner when he died in 2017. Saginor himself told Inside Edition he was not called “Dr. Feelgood” at the mansion and was always careful with distributing prescription drugs.
Saginor’s daughter was interviewed for A&E’s Secrets of Playboy and wrote the 2005 memoir Playground: A Childhood Lost Inside the Playboy Mansion. In an interview with the Daily Mail last year, Jennifer, 51, claimed she had her own room at the mansion and considered Hefner an “uncle.” She claimed she had her own relationship with one of Hefner’s girlfriends as a teenager and said the way she feels about her life at the mansion has changed over time.
“Even today, it’s still taking me a long time to understand that this environment that had no boundaries wasn’t healthy or typical for a woman who wants to feel good about herself or support other women,” she told the Daily Mail. “It just wasn’t that kind of place. I don’t blame Hef for the environment he created because the rules were very clear – they were set forth in a contract from the beginning.”
Secrets of Playboy aired on A&E last month and is available to watch on the network’s website with an account from a television provider. Hefner’s son Cooper Hefner defended his father in a tweet in response to the special. “Some may not approve of the life my Dad chose, but my father was not a liar,” Cooper tweeted on Jan. 23. “However unconventional, he was sincere in his approach and lived honestly. He was generous in nature and cared deeply for people. These salacious stories are a case study of regret becoming revenge.”
