Hugh Hefner's widow claims the Playboy tycoon was so addicted to painkillers that Viagra staff feared he would die of an overdose

Hugh Hefner's widow Crystal has claimed the late Playboy tycoon was secretly addicted to painkillers and Viagra with an 'earthquake stash of drugs' in his infamous mansion.

The former playmate, 37, who married the magazine publisher when she was 26 and he was 86 in 2012, said his pills were so bad that staff feared he would die of an overdose.

Hugh died in 2017 at the age of 91 due to heart failure and blood poisoning after contracting a deadly form of e-coli, leaving behind a fortune of $43 million.

In her new memoir Only Say Good Things, Crystal revealed that Hugh first became addicted to painkillers after being prescribed them for back pain.

He said he then began seeking out doctors to help feed his addiction with monthly refills, before staff felt the need to intervene when he started to become less coherent.

Writing: 'While so many celebrities are dying from overdoses from doctors giving them endless supplies, there were people around [Hugh] became more cautious and the opiates had to be given to him as he always gave us: in controlled doses.'

She also claimed that Hugh's hearing was 'shot' as a result of his overuse of erectile dysfunction medications.

Writing that the octogenarian would have rather 'given up a limb' before giving up Viagra as he tried to maintain his hard-partying lifestyle.

Viagra and similar impotence medications have been linked to hundreds of cases of sudden hearing loss around the world.

Elsewhere in the book, she recalled how her future husband gave her marijuana the first night they met, when she was 21, before the pair took part in an orgy.

Crystal claimed that not liking the taste led to her merely pretending to inhale, later discovering that “passing the pot” was Hugh's ritual with all the new women he slept with.

MailOnline has contacted Hugh Hefner's estate for comment.

Five days prior to their first wedding, Crystal called off their engagement so the couple could later rekindle their romance.

The Playboy impresario was previously married to childhood sweetheart Mildred 'Millie' Williams, after tying the knot in 1949.

In his E! True Hollywood Story revealed that Millie allowed the businessman to have extramarital affairs.

According to the show, this was a result of the guilt she felt for being unfaithful while he was in the military between 1944 and 1946.

They welcomed two children into the world during their marriage, Christie and David, before finally calling it quits in 1959.

Hugh married his second wife, Kimberley Conrad, in 1989. During their marriage, the couple had two boys, Marston and Cooper.

The couple separated in 1998, but did not officially sign their divorce papers until 2010.

It comes after Kendra Wilkinson revealed she was 'dying of depression' after struggling with 'unresolved trauma' from living in the Playboy mansion.

Hugh's former girlfriend, 38, recalled being admitted to hospital after suffering a panic attack just four months ago.

“I was at the end of my life and went into psychosis,” she said People“I felt like I wasn't strong enough to live anymore.”

“I was panicking,” she said. 'I didn't know what was going on in my head or my body or why I was crying. I had hit rock bottom.”

The reality TV personality revealed that she is now working with a therapist to deal with her trauma, some of which she believes was caused by living in the Playboy mansion many years earlier.

Since her discharge, she says she is feeling better after being prescribed antipsychotic medication and attending outpatient therapy three times a week.

Thinking back to that time is difficult for her, she said, explaining that she often questions her decisions at the time and wonders why she was with Hefner — who was 60 years her senior.

“I was doing drugs when I was 15 and I had a lot of problems,” she said of her childhood before moving into the Playboy mansion.

“It's not easy to look back at my 20s,” she told the outlet. “I had to face my demons.”

Of that lifestyle, she admitted, “Playboy really ruined my whole life.”