The Girls Next Door: Where Are They Now?

See where the stars of The Girls Next Door are over a decade after the series wrapped up on E!.

By Kelsey Klemme Jun 15, 2020 10:48 PM
| Updated Jun 11, 2021 2:40 PM
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Watch: Kendra Wilkinson in "Girls Next Door": E! News Rewind

Grab your bunny tail, because we're taking a trip down memory lane and back into the Playboy Mansion.

It's hard to believe that it's been over ten years since E!'s The Girls Next Door ended its six-season run and all the fun that came with it. After all, the iconic E! show brought us behind the scenes into the luxurious lifestyles of Hugh Hefner's then-girlfriends Holly Madison, Bridget Marquardt and Kendra Wilkinson, as well as the final season when Crystal Harris, Karissa Shannon and Kristina Shannon joined the house.

Since Hefner's passing, the Playboy brand has seen major shifts, but we are taking the day to celebrate the former glory days when the girls were partying in Vegas or celebrating another Midsummer Night's Dream party, a former must-attend event in Hollywood.

So, in honor of Kendra's 36th birthday June 12, we're taking a look back at the cast then and what they are up to now—including the drama that still follows them today.

 

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The Most Important Women in Hugh Hefner's Life

Take a look below:

Kendra Wilkinson

Kendra Wilkinson was one of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner's three live-in girlfriends when the show premiered in 2005. Fans were so invested in Wilkinson that she got her own spin-off show, Kendra, on E! after leaving the series in 2009.

Her subsequent WE tv series, Kendra On Top, which followed her journey as a mother of two, son Hank IV (born Sept. 11, 2009) and daughter Alijah (May 16, 2014), and her marriage to NFL player Hank Baskett, who she swapped vows with at the Playboy Mansion on June 27, 2009. 

The couple split up in 2018 and their divorce was finalized the following year. In 2021, Kendra got a real estate license and launched her own Discovery+ series, Kendra Sells Hollywood.

Bridget Marquardt

From investigating the mansion's possible haunted past to planning Hef's birthday, Bridget was No. 1. Her skin was ready to be shown on the Travel Channel's Bridget's Sexiest Beaches and she had cameos in the likes of Entourage, The House Bunny and Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Bridget's interest in the paranormal has come full circle as host of the podcast Ghost Bunny, featuring interviews with celebs who've experienced the unexplainable and other deep dives into various unsolved mysteries with the help of experts. She also began hosting the Girls Next Level podcast with Holly Madison in 2022. 

Once part of an iconic trio, she happily paired off long ago with partner Nicholas Carpenter.

Holly Madison

Holly Madison had a successful career after her tenure at the Playboy Mansion, including competing on Dancing with the Stars before getting her own show, Holly's World, that centered around her career in Las Vegas, including her Peepshow residency.

She published a revealing memoir about her time in the Playboy Mansion, Down the Rabbit Hole: Curious Adventures and Cautionary Tales of a Former Playboy Bunny, in 2015, chasing that it with 2016's The Vegas Diaries: Romance, Rolling the Dice and the Road to Reinvention.

The longtime PETA advocate is mom to daughter Rainbow (March 5, 2013) and son Forest (Aug. 7, 2016) with ex-husband Pasquale Rotella. 

In addition to participating in the scathing A&E docuseries Secrets of Playboy, she described having a complicated relationship with her Girl Next Door costars on a 2021 episode of the podcast Call Her Daddy. "Bridget and I have always been close," she said. "We've always been friends since day one. She is [the sweetest]." When asked if she had a relationship with Kendra, Holly tersely replied, "No."

Indeed, Holly proves her and Bridget's bond each week on the Girls Next Level podcast.

Crystal Harris

While all of the ladies of The Girls Next Door had a special place in Hefner's heart, Crystal Harris actually married the Playboy mogul in 2012, the then-86-year-old's third trip down the aisle. They remained together until his death in 2017

After Holly spoke out about her relationship with her costars, Crystal was quick to pick a side. "I was at the mansion for a DECADE almost four years ago now and these ladies and their drama were there years before that," she wrote on her MeWe account. "So much time has passed. I side with Kendra here."

"Not sure why these women who shared an incredibly uncommon and rare experience (that will never be repeated in our lifetimes) can't get along?" she continued. "Maybe for the same reasons Holly and Bridget despise me for absolutely NO reason. I hope one day we can all get along and compare experiences."

Crystal also became an advocate for Lyme disease awareness after announcing she'd been diagnosed with the illness in 2016.

In 2024, she debuted her relationship with Jim Ward and announced she would be reverting back to using her maiden name after going by Crystal Hefner following her 2012 nuptials. 

"I'm in a much better place," Crystal told E! News, seven years after Hugh's death. "Next step is definitely going back to my original last name and finally taking that last step to just be myself."

Kristina Shannon and Karissa Shannon

After the first generation of The Girls Next Door girlfriends left, twins Kristina Shannon and Karissa Shannon moved into the Playboy Mansion in 2009. During the remaining seasons, they celebrated their Playboy Summer Issue in Vegas, went camping in the backyard with Hef and prepared for bit parts in Sofia Coppola's Chateau Marmont-set movie Somewhere.

After the show wrapped, Kristina and Karissa joined the ninth season of Celebrity Big Brother and opened a beauty salon in Los Angeles.

However, the sisters eventually moved to Ann Arbor, Mich.

"Kristina and I decided to move,” Karissa told People in 2025. “We didn't know where to go, so we decided to go back to where we were born and leave L.A."

(Originally published June 17, 2020 at 9 a.m. PT)

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