Over the years, both Kendra Wilkinson and Holly Madison have made it clear that they weren’t the best of friends during their time in the Playboy Mansion — and now Wilkinson has gone into more detail about why she didn’t always get along with the girls she shared Hugh Hefner with.
“That’s the part that was hard,” Wilkinson, 39, revealed in the Thursday, May 8, episode of the “Him & Her” podcast when asked about her relationship with former Girls Next Door stars Madison, 45, and Bridget Marquardt. “I wasn’t really a ‘girl’s girl’ at that point in life. I was more of a ‘guy’s girl,’ so we never really bonded. I was always the third wheel.”
Wilkinson went on to explain that she often felt “uncomfortable” about her outsider status because the other girls had already formed a tight friendship. “I just decided to go with that during the show process,” she said. “I’m like, ‘Well, I’m just gonna be me and see how this works, rather than try to fit in.’ I felt like I was a complete odd man out [in that] whole situation.”
The reality star, who started dating Hefner when she was 18, also revealed that she did make one good friend during her time on the show: Playboy model Jessica Hall, who briefly appeared on The Girls Next Door but didn’t live at the mansion. She described Hall as “an amazing friend.”
On the show, Madison and Wilkinson were seemingly friends. However, this isn’t the first time Wilkinson has alluded to their strained relationship. In 2012, she told CNN that they “didn’t have a sisterly bond.” Three years later, Madison confirmed in her 2015 memoir, Down the Rabbit Hole, that she and her former Playboy roommate didn’t match personalities, calling her “the fakest person” she’s ever met.
Wilkinson slammed the book, telling Us at the time, “It’s a shame that someone can’t be appreciative of what something like that has given them.”
Madison and Wilkinson’s feud intensified further as Madison continued to speak negatively about her experience in the Playboy Mansion, and Wilkinson took to social media to call out Madison.
“She wasn’t in fear with that d*** in her ass for a paycheck. That bitch is in fear now knowing so many of us saw her doing some nasty s***,” Wilkinson wrote in a since-deleted tweet. “She’s embarrassed and in shame. She was the clean up girl … Hollys job was to get Hef hard again and clean him up with her mouth.”
Wilkinson later apologized after removing the post. Madison, for her part, spoke out about how she was “moving on.”
“I’ve dealt with my demons and I’ve come out ahead. I can hold my head high and work hard to be the classy and kind person I aspire to be,” she said in a statement to Us. “I want no part of a one-sided argument or feud where one woman lives to demoralize and degrade another woman. For those with unresolved issues, therapy works. You should try it.”
Wilkinson’s latest admission comes just days after Madison exclusively spoke to Us Weekly about their relationship. “It would be nice to be on good terms for sure, but I really don’t know where she’s at,” said Madison ahead of the May 5 season 3 premiere of The Playboy Murders. “I look back at our relationship and what went wrong and I see a lot of fault with executive producers who [were] working on her show and my show after we left.”
The Girls Next Door ran for five seasons and gave an inside look at life in the Playboy Mansion and the women’s connection to Hefner, who died in 2017 at age 91.
