Inside 'Playboy' 's Alleged 'Underground' Sex Ring — Including the Man Who Was 'the Love of Hugh Hefner's Life'

Hugh Hefner was most famous for his relationships with countless women, but according to some who were close to the Playboy founder, his most enduring relationship was with Dr. Mark Saginor.

Dr. Saginor's daughter Jennifer says she grew up in the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles after her father moved in with Hefner to serve as the mogul's personal physician and wingman. During the decades Hefner and Dr. Saginor knew each other, Jennifer said their relationship was built not only on their "spiritual connection," but also an escalating need to exploit and "break down" women in the bedroom — a pastime shared by many of the men in Hefner's inner circle.

Jennifer unveiled her story on Monday's episode of Secrets of Playboy, "The Shadow Mansions," which explored allegations that Hefner and several of his buddies forged their bonds by disempowering women and even trafficking aspiring actresses and models in a collection of homes constructed to emulate Hefner's famous party palace.

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"It became this predatory movement where the girls that didn't make the cut at Playboy were really shuffled off into this underground system," said Jennifer. She was joined in the episode by multiple former Playboy models, employees and party regulars who detailed the things they say they saw, experienced and were "horrified" by at the time.

PEOPLE has not independently verified the allegations reported in the episode, and A&E advises viewers, "The vast majority of allegations have not been the subject of criminal investigations or charges, and they do not constitute proof of guilt."

The Men and the Mini-Mansions

Though Hefner had three wives in his lifetime, his second marriage to Kimberley Conrad from 1989–99 was one of the few extended periods when the Playboy patriarch put a pin in his hedonistic, polyamorous lifestyle, according to Jennifer's account on the program.

This monogamous phase meant his signature sex-fueled soirees at the Playboy Mansion in Holmby Hills were fewer and farther between. According to Jennifer, Hefner's friends began to set up "clones of the Playboy Mansion on a smaller scale" around L.A. so they could access a rotating roster of fresh-faced newcomers to the city — and to the Playboy lifestyle.

Ironically, interest in becoming a Playmate was surging during the '90s precisely because Hefner had stepped back from the party scene. The upshot was that Playmates were more in the spotlight than ever and young women were flocking to Hollywood in hopes of becoming the next Anna Nicole Smith, Pamela Anderson or Jenny McCarthy.

"The competition is so stiff to be a Playmate, so [only a] handful makes it, [and] the rest slip through the cracks and get preyed on," said Jennifer Hatten, a Playboy Mansion regular, during the episode.

According to Jennifer Saginor, "These scouts would invite these girls to these mini-mansions for these 'modeling agency' parties and offer them a place to live and offer them modeling contracts."

Hatten elaborated, "The experience I had at the mini-mansion parties is, immediately walking in, having all the men glom onto you, offering you lines of coke or a bowl of ecstasy. If you refuse those, they're trying to shove champagne in your face — who knows what's in the champagne, if they've dropped anything in there. ... So the grooming that's happening at these mini-mansion parties is pretty obviously not for modeling."

"There were so many different young models living at my father's house," said Jennifer Saginor. "[Hefner's friends] would stop by my father's house to sort of check out the cattle."

At one party attended by Hefner, even the 1993 Playmate of the Year Smith was "on the menu," according to Hatten.

"I got the feeling when we were at the party that she was up for grabs for whoever," she said.

"That's how it works, even for someone like Anna Nicole Smith," said Jennifer, "they're used for a certain period of time, they are then easily disposable."

Rachel Myers, a Mansion regular, claimed she was introduced to the world of Playboy while working at a clothing store. In order to gain access to the Mansion, she allowed an unnamed older man to take photos of her bare breasts ("there were photos on the table of multiple women, and so I just thought it was normal," she remembered).

Though she did meet Hefner, she believed she was primarily treated as a sexual pass-around for his aging cohort. "I think there was definitely a learned behavior from the Mansion to the mini-mansions," she said. "These men got some ideas on how to manipulate women."

"It was a mindset," agreed Jennifer. "Girls were another form of a game to these men."

As an attendee at many mini-mansion parties, Jennifer said she witnessed "fake photo shoots" the men had staged to preserve the ruse. "The girls were posing without their clothes on. I just remember walking in on them and being, like, horrified. These girls were clearly drugged and not coherent. Maybe they would also have somebody videotaping them, and then that videotape could be used as blackmail so they wouldn't tell anyone or so that they'd sort of fall into this underground system of being available."

She said, "Basically any powerful, wealthy man in Los Angeles who was on the guest list to attend the mini-mansion parties was given an opportunity to [have sex] with particular girls."

And indeed, Jennifer found out that no one — including her — was off limits for the mini-mansioneers. She claimed to have survived her own sexual assault when one of her father's friends slipped something in her drink that caused her to black out. "Before I knew it, I was out of body and came to with him trying to have sex with me, telling me I had to take my clothes off. I was in his bed, and the whole thing was so horrific."

Jennifer admitted she felt "devastating" guilt that she never offered any help or protection. She also empathized with the young women, who "believed this was an opportunity to really move their dreams forward, when in fact it was really just all a façade. Very quickly they were crossing boundaries that they never thought they would cross. And once you're on this path, it's very hard to find your way out."

'Just Like Soul Mates'

Hefner let many of his friends stay at the Mansion for various periods of time over the years, but as Hef's personal physician, Dr. Mark Saginor had an especially intimate dynamic with the mogul, according to Saginor's daughter.

"My father and Hef had a spiritual connection that I don't believe any of these wives or girlfriends could ever compete against," said Jennifer. "Their friendship was, like, next-level. They were just like soul mates."

Confirmed Sondra Theodore, Hefner's girlfriend from 1976–81: "They took things really far. They became more than best friends. They became [lovers]."

Hefner himself vaguely acknowledged as much in archival footage, telling Bryant Gumbel, "When you're involved in the swing period, the orgy period of the '70s, there was more than a little bisexuality."

But over time, the sexual aspect of the men's relationship grew "a little bit more sinister," according to Jennifer.

"It wasn't about connection. I do believe that with all these men, it was really about knowing that you had power over someone else," she said.

She speculated that the instinct "probably stemmed from their own childhood. Growing up, they were both these weird, nerdy guys who didn't date a lot of women. So having control and power over these types of women at the Mansion was something that was very exciting."

She added, "There's something, I think, very predatory, of course, about manipulating a girl to do things that maybe she wouldn't have otherwise done. There's some kind of rush in that. And then it's like anything, you know, once you have something, you need more of that to sort of create the same feeling, so [the question becomes], 'How do we recruit more girls? How do we bring in fresh meat?'"

She also noted the appeal of "meeting these young girls that would come from small towns that still kind of had that light in them, and watching them slowly burn that light out."

This escalating need for stimulation would eventually lead to the darkest chapter of Dr. Saginor's life.

"Once I moved into my father's house, he had these different pictures of women on all fours, naked with a leash around the girl's neck," Jennifer said. "When I would try to say something to him, he was like, 'Well they actually like to be submissive. They want to be dominated.'"

She continued, "He was on drugs at the time and offering drugs to these young girls. I remember walking into his bedroom and seeing these young girls really incoherent, and he would be injecting them with something. I grew up watching these girls come in looking one way and slowly becoming somebody that they probably don't even recognize."

In 2004, Dr. Saginor was accused of drugging a 19-year-old and forcing her to perform oral sex, as well as calling in a second man to take semi-nude photos of her. His medical license was suspended for five years, but even more personally traumatic was Hefner's decision to ban his friend from the Mansion.

While Hefner and Dr. Saginor continued to speak on the phone, Jennifer said that her dad "was really upset that Hef would sort of turn his back on him in that moment, publicly."

"He felt that he was the fall guy," she said, "and he felt that he was a part of something much bigger. There are so many other men in Hef's inner circle who were part of this underground system. The bigger picture is an operation that had been in place for many decades."

More than anything, though, Jennifer was confused about why her father viewed Hefner's distance as a betrayal. Eventually, she said, "I started to connect the dots."

Jennifer shared, "It's my personal belief that the love of Hef's life was my father. Over the years, my father really gave up his family life, his practice, to be with him. I don't know many men who would just basically give up their own life and then move into some other man's house."

And though the allegations were life-changing for Dr. Saginor, they were also "a turning point," according to Jennifer. "He checked in to rehab, he became sober." (Per a statement in the episode, "Criminal charges against Dr. Saginor were ultimately dismissed after he completed a drug rehabilitation program." Producers also noted at the end of the episode, "Mark Saginor has stated that while he does not deny he was accused of the crimes mentioned in this episode, he categorically denies the other allegations made about him.")

Toward the end of Hefner's life, the old friends reconnected. "When Hef was passing, the one that was by his side at the end was my father," said Jennifer.

In a statement released just before the docuseries' premiere on Jan. 24, Playboy's current leadership wrote, "We trust and validate women and their stories, and we strongly support the individuals who have come forward to share their experiences."

The statement also noted, "Today's Playboy is not Hugh Hefner's Playboy."

Additionally, a statement at the end of each episode of Secrets of Playboy reads, "This series contains allegations of wrongdoing over decades by Hugh Hefner and others associated with him. The vast majority of allegations have not been the subject of criminal investigations or charges, and they do not constitute proof of guilt."

Secrets of Playboy airs Mondays at 9 p.m. ET on A&E.

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.