The former Playboy model — who shares daughter Rainbow, 11, and son, Forest, with ex-husband Pasquale Rotella — admitted that when she was her daughter’s age, she was “already trying to look some sort of way.”
Holly Madison hasn’t shied away from sharing how her time in the Playboy Mansion impacted her mental health and body image, and she’s making sure her kids don’t grow up obsessing about their physical appearance.
In a recent interview with Us Weekly, the former Playboy model — who shares daughter Rainbow, 11, and son Forest, 8, with ex-husband Pasquale Rotella — explained why she feels it’s important not to discuss “diet talk and body talk” with her children.
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“We’re really focused on healthy eating. I’m really careful not to say anything about dieting or weight or anything in front of my kids,” Madison said. “If they’re trying to shove something unhealthy in front of me, I just say, ‘Oh, I’m doing a health thing.'”
The 44-year-old former reality star added that for her daughter, specifically, she’s “really focused” on getting Rainbow to “value the things she enjoys and that she’s passionate about.”
“We don’t want her to get into the mode where she’s really focused on the way she looks, or trying to get attention for the way she looks or validation through that,” Madison shared.
The Girls Next Door alum said she believes she’s “really successful so far” in her efforts.
“She’s on a better track than I was at that age for sure,” Madison said, before revealing how growing up was drastically different from hers. “I was already trying to look some sort of way when I was 11.”
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The Girls Next Door alum — who dated Playboy founder Hugh Hefner for seven years, from 2001 to 2008 — has been very outspoken about her time living in the Playboy Mansion, and relationship with Hefner, sharing her experience for the first time in her 2016 tell-all book, Down the Rabbit Hole: Curious Adventures and Cautionary Tales of a Former Playboy Bunny, which was released a year before Hefner’s passing in 2017.
Madison previously revealed in 2021 that she struggled with body dysmorphia while she lived in the mansion. During an appearance on the Call Her Daddy podcast in November, she claimed there “was a lot of bulimia” at the Playboy mansion, saying they were “rampant” among the women.
“There was a lot of bulimia at the mansion, to the point where people would end up in the hospital sometimes,” Madison said at the time. “Bathroom pipes had to be replaced.”
Looking back at her comments during her interview with Us Weekly, the Down the Rabbit Hole author said, “There were a lot of people struggling with eating disorders and it was hard.”
If you or someone you know is struggling with an eating disorder, get help. Contact the National Eating Disorders Association (NEDA) at 1-800-931-2237 or go to NationalEatingDisorders.org.
