Playboy Twin Who Ditched Hef Reemerges for Rare Solo Interview

David Livingston/Getty Images The Girls Next Door star Karissa Shannon sat down for her first-ever solo interview years after leaving Hollywood.

Karissa was one-half of the “Shannon twins,” alongside her identical twin sister, Kristina Shannon.

The two moved into the Playboy mansion to live with founder Hugh Hefner as his girlfriends in 2008, when they were about 18–19.

By 2009, they were the main stars of the sixth season of The Girls Next Door alongside Hefner’s future wife, Crystal Harris, though Hefner and Harris were just dating at the time.

Seven years after leaving Hollywood, Karissa, now 36, gave her first-ever solo interview on the Lisa Guerrero Unleashed podcast in August.

Guerrero, a journalist who served as an Inside Edition correspondent for nine years, is uniquely familiar with Karissa’s background: She posed on the cover of Playboy in 2006 and hosted the Secrets of Playboy , a docuseries on A&E, in 2022.

“I tried to stay out of the entertainment business for a while because I did need my privacy.

I needed time to heal,” Karissa told Guerrero.

Karissa and her sister left the mansion in 2010 and moved into the nearby Playmate House, staying on the property until 2011.

In the interview she gave Guerrero in 2022 for Secrets of Playboy , Karissa claimed to have undergone traumatizing events at the mansion, including falling pregnant with Hefner’s child and undergoing an abortion.

After wrapping up The Girls Next Door , the twins did Celebrity Big Brother in 2012, and opened their own beauty salon: GLAM Beverly Hills.

Karissa said she was first trying to live a “normal life” in Los Angeles, but paparazzi chased her down.

“I was like, you know what? Get out of the spotlight.

Cut the light.