Hugh Hefner Engaged to Runaway Bride Crystal Harris: New Year Wedding

(Photo: Reuters/Fred Prouser)
Hugh Hefner and his then-fiancee, Crystal Harris, in April. Photograph:

By Brittney R. Villalva , Christian Post Reporter

December 2, 2012|11:59 am

Hugh Hefner has become engaged once again to former Playboy playmate Crystal Harris.

Hefner and Harris began dating in at the beginning of 2009. The couple planned a summer wedding in June of 2011, but Harris broke off the engagement five days before the ceremony. A Playboy magazine cover had already run with the title: "Introducing America's Princess, Mrs. Crystal Hefner" when Harris canceled plans, forcing the publication to stamp newsstand magazines with runaway bride.

Harris and Hefner began dating again in June 2012 prompting the former British magazine model to return back to the Playboy Mansion. Since then, sources reported that the couple had improved their relationship.

"Harris and Hef are better than ever these days, since Harris moved back into the Playboy Mansion earlier this year," a source said, TMZ has reported. "We're told the couple have worked out all their previous problems and decided recently they want to try and get married again."

Harris allegedly initiated the split after deciding that she needed time to seek her own independence. Harris, 26, will become the third wife to Hefner, 86. Hefner married his first wife, Mildred Williams, in 1949. Williams admitted to Hefner just before the wedding the she had had an affair while he was away in the army, forever altering Hefner's views. Hefner later called it "the most devastating moment of my life."

The couple divorced in 1959. In 1989 Hefner married Kimberly Conrad and the couple had two children. The divorce between Hefner and Conrad was finalized in 2010 after Hefner's youngest son turned 18. Hefner and Harris plan to marry on New Year's Eve in a small, intimate wedding, according to sources.