Former Playboy Playmate Karissa Shannon has backed Crystal Harris’ recent allegation that her late husband, Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, encouraged Karissa to have sex with her twin sister, Kristina, when they were teenagers.
“He would try to force my sister and me to have sex with each other,” Karissa, 37, told Page Six on Wednesday.
The Shannon twins lived at the Playboy Mansion from the ages of 18 to 20.
Karissa said she was surprised by the public shock surrounding Harris’ account, which described Hefner’s efforts to encourage sexual behavior between the sisters as incestuous. She said she had assumed people already suspected something similar had taken place.
Karissa also described Hefner’s alleged insistence that the twins have a sexual encounter on their 19th birthday in October 2008 as resembling sexual “assault” and “rape.”
The Daily Mail has contacted representatives for Karissa Shannon, Kristina Shannon and Playboy for comment.
Former Playboy Playmate Karissa Shannon says Crystal Harris’ claim that Hugh Hefner asked her to have sex with her twin sister, Kristina, is accurate. Karissa, Kristina, Hefner and Harris are pictured in Toronto in 2009
Hugh Hefner, who died at age 91 in September 2017, is pictured in 2008
Karissa told Page Six that she and Kristina only pretended to engage in sexual behavior in order to satisfy Hefner.
“My sister and I never actually did it together,” Karissa said. “That is something I want to make clear.”
“We never had incestuous sex. We never did that. We pretended. We pretended every time, and it was horrible. We completely faked it.”
According to Karissa, Harris witnessed some of the encounters and knew the twins were acting, while Hefner—who died in September 2017—believed their behavior was genuine.
Karissa alleged that the staged scenario pleased Hefner, who reportedly called it “beautiful.”
“He wanted to see it and wanted us to fool around with each other,” Karissa said. “He told us that if we really loved each other, we would do it together.”
Karissa said she and Kristina discussed Hefner’s demands before deciding to act as though they were complying. “We said, ‘Let’s just fake it,’” she recalled.
![Crystal Hefner, pictured earlier this year in LA, claimed Hefner had tried 'to get [the Shannon twins] to engage with each other sexually'](https://i.dailymail.com/1s/2026/11/06/02/112315283-16267369-Crystal_Hefner_pictured_earlier_this_year_in_LA_claimed_Hefner_h-a-39_1793933577317.jpg)
Crystal Hefner, pictured in Los Angeles earlier this year, alleged that Hugh Hefner had tried “to get [the Shannon twins] to engage with each other sexually”
Kristina Shannon, Karissa Shannon, Hugh Hefner and Crystal Harris are pictured in Beverly Hills, California, in December 2009
The Shannon twins attend their 21st birthday celebration in New York City in 2010
Karissa said she did not realize whether the other Playmates living at the mansion were actually having sex with Hefner or other people.
In an interview with Lisa Guerrero Unleashed last week, Harris said that incidents in the bedroom “ended up just not being okay.”
Harris alleged that Hefner had attempted “to get [the Shannon twins] to engage with each other sexually,” adding, “That is incest and that is disgusting.”
Harris said she was relieved when the twins eventually moved out of the Playboy Mansion, distancing themselves from what she characterized as Hefner’s disturbing demands.
“I didn’t want them to have to do something like that with each other,” Harris said. “So that was very, very hard.”
