The Ultimate Playboy

Sexual liberator or dirty old man? Hugh Hefner, who has died aged 91, lead a life that was anything but dull

- Jane Vorster

HE CLAIMED to have slept with more than 1000 women and wasn’t ashamed in the slightest bit to admit that he needed the help of the impotence drug Viagra to reach this milestone. To some he was just a dirty old man but others saw him as a visionary pioneer who sparked the sexual revolution.

So it’s hardly surprising that news of the publishing giant’s death at age 91 sparked a flood of tributes.

“Don’t tell me Hugh Hefner is in a better place,” tweeted one fan. “He’s been living every man’s dream since he was 27.”

The pipe-smoking mogul, who was famous for his risqué Playboy magazine and the decadent life he lived at his mansion in Los Angeles, often surrounded by a gaggle of model girlfriends, died at his home recently.

And we’re guessing that, right to the end, he had few regrets.

“I’m a kid in a candy store,” he once said. “I dreamt impossible dreams, and the dreams turned out beyond anything I could possibly imagine. I’m the luckiest cat on the planet.”