Hugh Hefner and His Physician Dr. Mark Saginor Were in Relationship for 4 Decades, Doctor's Daughter Says

Jennifer Saginor told Inside Edition she believed her father and Hugh Hefner to be soul mates and said that her dad was by Hefner's side at the time of the Playboy founder's death.

Hugh Hefner was in a romantic relationship with his personal physician, Dr. Mark Saginor, for nearly 40 years, according to Saginor's daughter, who told Inside Edition she and her father lived at the Playboy Mansion when she was a girl. 

"I am saying that Hefner and my father were soul mates," Jennifer Saginor told Inside Edition chief correspondent Jim Moret. "In my opinion, this was the love of Hefner's life and the love of my father's life." 

Hefner lived the playboy life to the hilt. A walking embodiment of his brand, Hefner surrounded himself with beautiful women. But Jennifer Saginor, who is featured in the new A&E documentary "Secrets of Playboy," said her father saw Hefner frequently. 

"My father was seeing Hef on a regular basis and seeing Hef all the time," she said. "It was just natural for him to have a room there, so my father could check on him on a regular basis."  

Saying she believed her father and Hefner to have been in a long-term relationship that was "spiritual and emotional," Saginor said there was also a physical relationship between the men.

"The wives and girlfriends may come and go, but this relationship remained constant," she said. 

Saginor, whose father was given the nickname "Dr. Feelgood" for allegedly giving out prescription pills at the Playboy Mansion, said she lived at the sprawling compound from girlhood until she went to college. 

"To me, it was just this magical environment," she said of the mansion. "Exotic animals and gumballs and M&Ms everywhere... Once I actually lived there, the butlers would make me lunch in the morning and the house limo would drop me at school."

Saginor said there was also a dark side to life at the mansion. It was there, she said, that she was introduced to drugs at an early age.

"I got my first joint in the game room at age 11," she said. 

Saginor's father and Hefner's relationship was long-lasting, his daughter said, noting that her dad was at Hefner's side when he died in 2017 at the age of 91

"My father was the only person with him when he passed," she said. 

When reached by Inside Edition, Dr. Saginor said accusations that he was a "Dr. Feelgood" are ludicrous. He said he has always been very careful with appropriate prescriptions. 

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