Crystal Hefner, the widow of late Playboy founder Hugh Hefner, is raising concerns over thousands of personal scrapbooks and diaries she says contain intimate photos and deeply private information about women that could potentially become public.

In a statement issued through her attorney, Gloria Allred, Crystal Hefner announced she has filed regulatory complaints with the attorneys general in both California and Illinois. The complaints target the Hugh M. Hefner Foundation, which she claims currently has possession of the materials. According to Allred, the foundation is allegedly holding roughly 3,000 scrapbooks packed with thousands of intimate images of women, along with Hugh Hefner’s personal diary.

Allred described the contents as highly sensitive, claiming the diary includes names of women Hefner allegedly slept with, descriptions of those encounters, and personal notes that in some cases even tracked women’s menstrual cycles. She warned that releasing such information could expose women to humiliation and harm decades after the material was recorded.

Hugh Hefner built his empire in the 1950s with the launch of Playboy, turning sexual imagery and a playboy lifestyle into a cultural brand. While he has been praised by some as a figure who helped reshape sexual politics, he has also been heavily criticized for contributing to misogyny and fostering an environment that encouraged exploitation. Crystal Hefner, his third wife, married him in 2012 after previously appearing as a Playboy model.

Allred said Crystal Hefner did not consent to having intimate images of herself stored in the foundation’s collection, and she believes many of the women — and potentially girls — pictured in the scrapbooks may also not have consented. Crystal’s concerns include the possibility that some of the photos depict minors or were taken under circumstances where women were intoxicated and unable to provide informed consent.

Allred also claimed Crystal Hefner was removed from her role as CEO of the Hugh M. Hefner Foundation after she began questioning whether the foundation planned to publish or share the diaries and scrapbooks. USA TODAY reported it has reached out to the foundation for comment, but no response has been publicly confirmed.

In her own statement, Crystal Hefner said she is speaking out not just for herself but for the women featured in the scrapbooks who were never part of Playboy’s public-facing content. She emphasized that many of the women involved have spent decades building private lives and careers, unaware that intimate images may still be stored away.

“These are women who are now mothers, grandmothers, professionals, and private citizens,” she said, warning that releasing the material would not be a matter of preserving history but rather continuing a pattern of objectifying women long after their involvement with Hefner ended.

Crystal also criticized what she described as hypocrisy within the foundation, arguing that those controlling the materials are not the ones at personal risk. She stressed that the danger falls entirely on the women whose images are included. She further warned that in today’s climate, the release of intimate photos could lead to additional exploitation through artificial intelligence and deepfake technology, making the consequences even more damaging than they might have been in the past.

Hugh Hefner died in 2017 at age 91 from natural causes. His controversial legacy continues to generate attention even years after his death. The report also noted a well-known detail about Hefner’s personal life: in 1992, he paid $75,000 to purchase the burial vault next to Marilyn Monroe, Playboy’s first cover star, ensuring he would be laid to rest beside her.

Crystal Hefner’s complaints aim to prevent what she views as a harmful and unethical exposure of private women’s lives, urging government officials to intervene before the materials can be released or distributed.