Holly Madison

Holly Madison was married to event promoter Pasquale Rotella from 2013 to 2019. They have two children, daughter Rainbow Aurora Rotella, born in March 2013, and son Forest Leonardo Antonio Rotella, born in August 2016.

In 2021, Madison discussed believing that she was on the autism spectrum, a possibility her parents had long suspected. She later confirmed that she had received a formal diagnosis.

Madison was born in Astoria, Oregon, and moved with her family to Craig, Alaska, on Prince of Wales Island, at the age of two. Her family later returned to Oregon, where she attended school in St. Helens. She studied theater and psychology for two years at Portland State University before attending Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.

To help pay for college, Madison competed to become a Hawaiian Tropic model and worked as a waitress at Hooters. Her modeling and promotional work led to invitations to the Playboy Mansion. She moved into the mansion in August 2001 and became one of Hugh Hefner's girlfriends, later becoming his primary girlfriend in February 2002.

Madison became widely known through The Girls Next Door, an E! reality series that followed life at the Playboy Mansion. She appeared on the show from 2005 to 2009 alongside Bridget Marquardt and Kendra Wilkinson. Although she was never a Playboy Playmate, Playboy published a pictorial featuring Madison and her co-stars in 2005, followed by several additional magazine covers.

During the show's third and fourth seasons, Madison worked at Playboy studios as an intern and later as a junior photo editor. She also helped design and assemble The Girls Next Door calendars. After her relationship with Hefner ended in 2008, she left Playboy in 2009 and pursued other creative projects.

Madison later discussed her experiences in the Playboy Mansion in the documentary series Secrets of Playboy. Her episode, which aired in 2022, focused on her account of the mansion's restrictive environment and her relationship with Hefner.

In 2009, Madison competed on the eighth season of Dancing with the Stars with professional partner Dmitry Chaplin. The pair were eliminated during a double-elimination round and finished in 11th place.

That year, she replaced Kelly Monaco in the Las Vegas burlesque production Peepshow at Planet Hollywood. Madison initially signed for three months, but the engagement was extended, and she performed as Bo Peep and later Goldilocks for nearly four years. She also starred in Holly's World, an E! reality series centered on her life and work in Las Vegas, which ran for two seasons.

Madison and Las Vegas mayor Oscar Goodman led a 2009 bikini parade that set a Guinness World Record with 281 participants. In 2014, she opened the speakeasy-themed club 1923 Bourbon and Burlesque at the Mandalay Bay hotel in Las Vegas.

Madison published her first memoir, Down the Rabbit Hole: Curious Adventures and Cautionary Tales of a Former Playboy Bunny, in 2015. The book recounts her years at the Playboy Mansion and the beginning of her recovery afterward, and it reached the top of The New York Times best-seller list.

Her second memoir, The Vegas Diaries: Romance, Rolling the Dice, and the Road to Reinvention, followed in 2016. It describes her move toward reinvention and self-acceptance in Las Vegas and also appeared on The New York Times best-seller list.

Madison later became the host and an executive producer of the true-crime series The Playboy Murders. She also hosts and executive-produces Lethally Blonde.