Sandra Costa, a former Playboy bunny from New Zealand, was only 19 when she first left home and fled to Los Angeles to arrive at the Playboy mansion.
Hugh Hefner, who founded Playboy in the early 1950s, died on Thursday (NZ time) at age 91, after a long battle with cancer which he kept private.
In an interview with the AM Show Sandra reveals the way Hugh Hefner changed her life dramatically.
“As soon as I walked into Playboy it was like magic,” Costa says.
“With my personality, and my Kiwi accent, I don’t know how I did it but I managed to talk my way in.”
Hefner and Costa became close, Hefner even nicknamed her “bunny business” due to how great she was at her job. Costa worked for 8 years as a bunny at night clubs in Miami and Los Angeles.
“I was the top-paid Playboy bunny throughout 19 clubs. I smiled a lot, I talked… I used to train all the girls how to walk and how to do the bunny dip, lean backwards,” she said.
“We had a pink credit card – I still have mine, it says ‘Bunny Sandra’ – when I used to go out I used to be able to use my pink bunny card and I never paid for anything… We were celebrities.”
Costa says Hefner “liked her Kiwi accent” and would often speak to her about New Zealand.
“He was fabulous. I had a wonderful time working for Hefner” she says.
Costa says Hefner not only changed her life but all the girls within the Playboy mansion.
“He was such a gentleman and he treated all the girls with respect and he took lots of beautiful young girls who were just growing up and he turned us all into superstars.”
Costa eventually left her bunny career and went on to focus on design. Just recently she designed a custom-made chair which she had sent to Hugh Hefner directly.
“It’s kind of crazy to cry over a boss, but he was a great boss and I am in business today because he told me I could,” she says.