With former Playmates sharing their harrowing “first time” stories with Hugh Hefner, we knew that more was coming.

Once again, Holly Madison and Bridget Marquardt are sharing behind-the-scenes details.

As always, there is a huge difference between sexual liberation and the predatory, manipulative, exploitative world that they describe.

Sometimes, the manipulations were downright hamfisted — with Hugh Hefner “fake crying” to get his way.

This is kinda sad, man.

Speaking on their podcast, Girls Next Level, Holly and Bridget recalled how Hugh Hefner managed them.

Obviously, there were incentives — like money and a sense of community — for the girls to be there with him.

But the Bunnies were all people. Young women, specifically.

Sometimes, they were deep in their feelings. Other times, they didn’t want to do something.

Apparently, the late magazine mogul would fake crying in order to get his way.

“If we were emotional about something or asking for something,” Holly recalled, “he would start fake crying.”

“It was such bad acting and so obvious,” she described.

For a time, Holly thought that she was the only one who had noticed.

She characterized his weaponization of tears against her and the girls as “gaslighting.”

That’s … not really what that word means. But it certainly is dishonest and manipulative.

And Holly correctly pointed out that he already had “all the power in the relationship.” Why use these tactics?

“For the longest time I never talked to anybody about it,” Holly admitted on the podcast.

This, she explained, was “because I thought maybe I was the only one noticing this.”

It was, oddly enough, when Kendra Wilkinson joined the group that Holly realized that she wasn’t the only one.

“But I remember, not long after Kendra moved in, she goes, ‘Does Hef fake cry?'” Holly recalled.

She described Kendra saying: “‘Because I was talking to him and he started fake crying.’”

Madison shared her reaction: “I was like, ‘Finally, I know I’m not insane.’”

“It was insane how obvious it was,” Holly elaborated, “and how bad the acting was.”

“But,” she said of the dynamic, “you can’t say anything.”

Holly explained that this was “because he’s the one who has all the power in the relationship.”

Overall, Holly felt that his behavior was absurd. This man was a business magnate and a living legend.

“It was insanity and something I never would have expected from a cultural icon,” Holly reasoned.

“I just had this idea in my mind of what I thought Hef was going to be,” she added.

Holly’s previous assumptions had been “based on what he’d accomplished and what I saw from a distance.”

The reality strayed pretty far from her expectations.

“And he’s a fake crier,” Holly remarked. Yeah, that’s super weird.

Holly Madison: Hugh Hefner Used Fake Crying to Manipulate Us! Super Weird … was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip .