Holly Madison Talks Bringing a ‘Multifaceted’ Lens to Playboy Stories: ‘That’s Why I Was Put Here on Earth’ (Exclusive)

Holly Madison wants the world to have a “more well-rounded” way of looking at the stories of the women who lived and worked at the Playboy Mansion. The Girls Next Door alum, who dated Hugh Hefner from 2001 to 2008, opened up to PopCulture.com ahead of Monday’s Season 2 premiere of her series The Playboy Murders on Investigation Discovery, sharing how she went from someone who was “embarrassed” of her own situation in the Playboy Mansion to someone who invites nuance for others with a similar story.

Madison never intended for her private life to become public fodder when she moved to Los Angeles at age 19, so ending up at the Playboy Mansion wasn’t exactly what she expected. “Even when I was on Girls Next Door, I was kind of embarrassed of the situation I was in and I didn’t really feel great about doing the show, but I kind of felt like I had to do it because I was already there,” she shared. “We were told, ‘You gotta do it or get out.’”

Madison was “very guarded” throughout Girls Next Door, on which she appeared from 2005 to 2009, but through projects like her Girls Next Level podcast with Bridget Marquardt and hosting The Playboy Murders, she’s found her “more authentic voice.” She told PopCulture, “I feel like that’s kind of my path – just to present my story and hope that people can see stories in a more well-rounded way and not just see things as black and white,” adding, “I feel like that’s why I was put here on Earth, I didn’t mean to do it.”

In the new season of The Playboy Murders, which became ID’s number-one freshman series when Season 1 premiered in 2023, Madison is diving into a “wide variety of cases,” some of which are “extra meaningful” to her as she knew some of the people who were involved. “Our season finale involves a woman that I met and I only recently found out what happened to her because I was doing some research for my podcast and [was] looking into things women had written about their experience with Playboy at the time.” Madison shared. “When I was looking her up, I saw that she was tragically murdered and I wanted to dive deeper in that story and find out what happened to her [and] what went wrong.”

The Holly’s World alum explained that she takes the “responsibility” of telling these victims’ stories very seriously, especially because “some of it can feel pretty relatable” to her. “That’s a huge goal of mine is to try and understand these people as much as I can and portray them as more multifaceted people than just a Playboy Bunny,” she shared. 

Madison’s mission expands with the premiere of her second ID show, Lethally Blonde, which she describes as a “natural extension of The Playboy Murders” that examines cases outside the world of simply Playboy, diving into the world of Penthouse and other realms of adult entertainment. “I’d love people to walk away feeling empathy for what happened and hopefully understanding the victim a little bit better,” she said of Lethally Blonde, which premieres in March, “maybe understanding the story in a more well-rounded way. And in some ways, they might even be able to relate to a lot of these people.”

The Playboy Murders premieres Monday, Jan. 22 at 10 p.m. ET on ID. Lethally Blonde will premiere on Monday, March 25 at 10 p.m. ET on ID.