Playboy Hugh Hefner and new girlfriends talk ‘Girls Next Door’

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Even at 83, Playboy mogul Hugh Hefner has no trouble bouncing back from a breakup.

‘My reaction always to a lost love is to, you know, get back in the game,’ Hefner said in an interview last week in the Playboy Mansion library.

As he and his three new blond-bombshell girlfriends, Crystal Harris and twins Karissa and Kristina Shannon, sat on the antique couch, Hefner discussed soured relationships and the latest of countless new beginnings. All the while, Hefner affectionately rubbed the legs of his costars on the new season of the E! show ‘The Girls Next Door.’

America’s grandfather of sexual liberation said he wasn’t expecting to settle down, per se, immediately after his recent breakup -- not to be confused with his divorce last month from second wife Kimberly Conrad, from whom he had been separated for 11 years.

Hefner split about a year ago with Holly Madison, Bridget Marquardt and Kendra Wilkinson, the former stars of the surreality show whom he called his girlfriends for several years.

‘One might have expected a lonely period or a period with a lot of whoever happened to be here,’ Hefner said. ‘But instead of that, it moved very quickly and very smoothly into a wonderful relationship.’

The transition between girls plays out on the screen Sunday during the sixth-season premiere of ‘The Girls Next Door.’

Hefner said his relationships generally follow a path where his Playmate girlfriends gain fame and eventually pursue celebrity rather than a more-relaxed life at one of Los Angeles’ most legendary manors. These new girls, too, will become celebs ‘rather quickly,’ Hefner predicts.

Watch the video at the top for our interview with the ‘Girls Next Door’ stars.

-- Mark Milian