Where Is Holly Madison Now? A Look at Her Life 17 Years After Leaving Hugh Hefner's Playboy Mansion

It's been well over a decade since Holly Madison left Hugh Hefner's Playboy Mansion.

Madison rose to fame on the E! reality TV series The Girls Next Door, which chronicled her and Hefner's other live-in girlfriends' lives at the Playboy Mansion. In 2008, Madison left the house and Hefner, who died in September 2017 at 91 years old. During a November 2023 interview with PEOPLE, she explained that she "didn't have any emotional attachment to him" at the time of his death.

"When he passed away, everybody expected me to have some big reaction or post about it on social media, and it just felt weird," she said. “I'd already come out talking about what a toxic relationship this was for me. Why am I supposed to post a memorial on my Instagram?”

The former Playboy model also told PEOPLE that she had been in "survival" mode when she left the mansion, explaining that she was "traumatized" by her experiences.

“I was just in this fight or flight state for about four months, just trying to get my feet off the ground because I knew I had to. It was like, build a career for yourself right now before people forget you were on a show," she said. "So I did that, and then I was just working my a-- off for three years straight."

So where is Holly Madison now? Here's everything to know about her life after leaving Hugh Hefner's Playboy Mansion.

Why did Holly Madison leave the Playboy Mansion?

In 2008, Madison, who was 29 years old at the time, left the Playboy Mansion after living in the house for seven years.

During a September 2015 appearance on Oprah: Where Are They Now?, Madison shared a glimpse into her decision, explaining that she and Hefner "started hitting a rocky patch" when it became clear that her housemates, Bridget Marquardt and Kendra Wilkinson, were "moving onto new things."

“I just had enough, and just had realized all the delusions I’d been under and that this was no longer the life for me," Madison said.

She added that "the whole thing came to a bizarre peak" when she was packing her belongings and discovered a folder Hefner had left out, which showed he had left her $3 million in his will.

“It was very clear to me that he left that out for me to see because he was hoping I would change my mind and get me to stay, but it just kind of disgusted me more than anything because all he can do was say, ‘Oh, here, I’m going to throw you some money to get you to stay,' " Madison said. "It just grossed me out.”

During a March 2024 conversation with PEOPLE, Madison opened up further about her decision to leave, saying, "I did it in part because my mental health just couldn't take it anymore."

"I knew if I wanted to have a family of my own, I was running out of time," she said. "I went from thinking I was going to stay there forever and not really being too prepared to move out to the next day realizing I needed to."

What did Holly Madison accuse Hugh Hefner of?

In June 2015, Madison released a tell-all memoir titled Down the Rabbit Hole: Curious Adventures and Cautionary Tales of a Former Playboy Bunny. In the book, Madison detailed her experience living in the Playboy Mansion, including the "misery" that became so all-encompassing that she considered suicide.

Following the release of her first memoir, Hefner denounced Madison's claims that he had manipulated her, telling PEOPLE that some women had "chosen to rewrite history in an attempt to stay in the spotlight."

Madison responded by telling PEOPLE that "everything in the book is 100 percent true," it just was "not the version of the story he would like to tell."

A few years later, A&E released a docuseries titled Secrets of a Playboy, in which Madison opened up further about the "cult-like" environment Hefner had created in the mansion.

"He comes across as caring and generous, especially when you see him in that atmosphere because he's providing this good time for all his friends and you know, there's a glow about him," she said. "And you just start to build this picture in your head of somebody who can really do no wrong. And now, looking back on my time at Playboy, it reminds me of a cult."

She added that it was "easy to get isolated from the outside world there," explaining that there was a set curfew and rules on both visitation and leaving.

Madison also detailed being "afraid to leave" because she feared a "mountain of revenge porn just waiting to come out" if she did.

"When you would go out with Hef, he's taking all kinds of naked pictures of these women when we're wasted out of our minds," she said. "And he would print out like eight copies for him and all the women, you pass them around. It was just gross."

Madison detailed several other realities about living in the mansion, including "compulsive" plastic surgery amongst the women.

How did living in the Playboy Mansion impact Holly Madison?

Though Madison left the house in 2008, her time in the mansion had lasting effects on her mental health.

"I've had different types of therapy and stuff since I left," she said in the A&E docuseries. "Other than some of the animals in the zoo, I can't really think of anything I miss."

During a November 2023 interview with PEOPLE, Madison shared that living in the mansion led her to develop body dysmorphia because she was always "wondering what's wrong" with her.

"[Hugh] had a way of making me feel like I wasn't pretty enough, and I would look around to everybody else and constantly be wondering, what's so different about them and why are they so much better?” she recalled.

Who did Holly Madison date after Hugh Hefner?

After splitting from Hefner, Madison began dating Electric Daisy Carnival founder Pasquale Rotella in 2011. They tied the knot in Disneyland on Sept. 10, 2013, but got divorced in February 2019.

Madison and Rotella share two children together: daughter Rainbow, born in March 2013, and son Forest, born in August 2016.

Following her split from Rotella, Madison was then in an on-again-off-again relationship with Ghost Adventures host Zak Bagans for years. However, she announced in March 2025 that they had officially gone their separate ways.

Where is Holly Madison now?

Though the beginning of her career was marked by her time in the Playboy Mansion, Madison has pursued several other endeavors in the years since.

After splitting from Hefner and leaving the mansion, Madison starred in her own show on E!, called Holly's World. The series, which followed her life and new career as a burlesque dancer in Las Vegas, ran for two seasons from 2010 to 2011.

One year after releasing her 2015 book, Madison published her second memoir, The Vegas Diaries: Romance, Rolling the Dice and the Road to Reinvention.

She then went on to become an executive producer of ID's The Playboy Murders, which is currently airing its third season. Madison also debuted another ID show in March 2024, titled Lethally Blonde, a true-crime series focused on sharing the stories of those who have been sexually exploited.

She and Marquardt also co-host a podcast called Girls Next Level, in which the former Playboy Bunnies have often reflected on their time in the bedroom with Hefner.

As for how she is grappling with the emotional impacts of her years in the mansion, Madison told PEOPLE in 2023, "I feel like I'm on the other side of it."

“It definitely took me a couple years to kind of get deprogrammed and get out of the Playboy fog and realize what that relationship was really all about and quit trying to glorify it or justify it to other people," she said.

Madison has also been open about her autism diagnosis, revealing in a December 2023 episode of the Talking to Death podcast that she was "not on the same social wavelength as other people."