Playboy founder Hugh Hefner was 60-years-old when Crystal Harris, the woman he was until recently engaged to be married to, was born in the U.S. state of Arizona. He'd had a stroke the year before her birth and when she was 4 he married Playmate of the Year Kimberly Conrad, his second marriage and one that was destined, like his first, to fail.
Despite the age gap the 85-year-old was confident he and Harris, who would have been his third wife, would be able to make it work. He was wrong, and told he Piers Morgan on July 14, 2011 on the CNN show 'Piers Morgan Tonight' that the break-up - she called it off in June a week before they were to be married - came as a surprise; he did say, though, that there were signs.
"Things did not seem to be quite they way they should be," Hefner told his host about Harris' behavior in the weeks before leaving him. "Something was not right but I did not see it coming. I truly did not see it coming."
Hugh Hefner: Crystal Harris Wants to be a Singer
Hefner, who recently had to endure rumors of his having died, and not for the first time, said he feels he may have lost his chance to marry the model and singer because her aspirations for a singing career. He did not, however, explain how being married to him may have prevented Harris from pursuing her dreams of being a professional singer, as was her British father, Ray Harris.
Hefner's Playboy mansion is known for lavish parties and for his having a veritable stable of women that live there and partake in sexual activity with him. He told Morgan that did not seem to be any part of her decision to call of the nuptials and suggested any thing she has said the contrary is untrue. "She loved the lifestyle. She loved the girls," he said.
When asked what went wrong Hefner said it was the number one questions and "...I don't have an answer for you. I really don't know what happened but I think over time the rest of the story will come out." He mentioned the possibility of another man - obviously a younger one - and last week. Marc Malkin, an E! online gossip guy who is pretty dependable, wrote about a "mystery man" that Harris was at the Pure nightclub in Las Vegas with.
Rumors of Hefner Marriage Exaggerated
For her part, in an interview with Entertainment Tonight back when the split happened she said that a marriage was between two people and that was not, she claims, what her relationship with Hefner was. She also cited how "crazy" it was that she was constantly meeting with lawyers about pre-nuptials, reality show contracts and other legal matters.
Hefner, who tweeted that those recent "...rumors of my death are, as Mark Twain observed in a similar situation, greatly exaggerated. I'm very much alive & kicking" is moving forward, though surely this will be his final chance to wed a woman young enough to be his great grand-daughter. But then again....
During the interview with Morgan he took the opportunity to introduce his two new girlfriends, both blond women as Harris is. While playmate Anna Berglund is, like Harris, 25, Hefner is also dating a slightly older playmate in Canadian Shera Bechard. She's 27.
