Holly Madison and Bridget Marquardt Recall Their Ghost Encounters at the Playboy Mansion

Ahead of their appearance on Ghost Adventures, The Girls Next Door's Holly Madison and Bridget Marquardt reflect on moments when they believe they saw spirits at the Playboy Mansion.

By Ryan Gajewski Aug 06, 2021 1:30 AMTags
Watch: Where Holly Madison Stands With Kendra Wilkinson & Bridget Marquardt

Back in the day, seemingly everyone wanted an invite to party at the Playboy Mansion, including some guests who might not have belonged to this world.

Holly Madison and Bridget Marquardt, who appear together in an episode of the ghost-hunting Discovery+ series Ghost Adventures on Thursday, Aug. 5, spoke to Nylon in an interview published that day. During the chat, the two The Girls Next Door alums recalled living with the late Hugh Hefner at the Playboy Mansion in the 2000s and experiencing moments that led them to believe the storied Los Angeles-area home was haunted.  

"You definitely felt the nostalgia and the old energy," Bridget shared about the 29-bedroom abode that was built in 1927. "I had little things happen."  

Bridget described how one time she allegedly saw a woman standing in her closet doorway for a brief moment. "She had long, black stringy hair—very pale, very thin. She was wearing a white T-shirt that was too big on her and black acid wash-y jeans," said the 47-year-old host of ghost-stories podcast Ghost Magnet. "She was more modern-day, and I feel like I recognized who she was. 

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The Girls Next Door: Then and Now

Bridget said she would come to believe this may have been the spirit of a woman named Joanie, who helped the mansion's guests and would care for the pets before she passed away from cancer. "There was a new pet in the house, and she was just seeing what was going on," the reality TV personality said. "I think it was a loving thing, but it's scary because it's shocking."

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Additionally, Holly, who lived at the mansion from 2001 to 2008, recalled allegedly seeing a ghost in the basement gym, detailing how a woman left the bathroom and crossed in front of the star while moving toward a doorway. When Holly investigated, she realized that the woman had vanished and that the door opened into a small closet, meaning she would have had to pass by Holly again in order to exit the gym. "I never saw that woman again in my life," she added. 

Holly said that she when things like this would happen, she would "try to rationalize them away." At one point, she said aloud in Bridget's room that she wanted a sign of supernatural activity, and a TV suddenly turned on at full volume.

"For me, it took a bunch of different experiences before I thought, 'OK, there's something weird going on here,'" Holly, 41, shared. "I said, 'I wish I had more proof it was real,' and right away when I said that, her TV turned on by itself, and the volume went all the way up."

She pointed out that her social media followers seem to really enjoy hearing about moments like these from the mansion, which Playboy Enterprises sold in 2016. "I think that people, especially younger people, are so much more into the paranormal now than ever before, and in general, society is waking up to a more spiritual nature on all levels," Holly said.