Playboy founder wants crypt next to “ultimate blonde”, Marilyn Monroe

Playboy founder Hugh Hefner continues to divide public opinion, even in death. The 91 year old, who passed away on September 27, will be laid to rest alongside Marilyn Monroe in Los Angeles, California. Hefner bought the crypt next to the actress’ burial space for $75,000 in 1992, reported the BBC.

Multi-millionaire, Hefner, never met Monroe face-to-face but used her image to launch the Playboy empire. He featured her nude in the magazine’s first issue in 1953. He paid $500 for the pictures, which had been owned by a Chicago calendar company and taken before Monroe’s rise for fame, at a time when she was in need of money and struggling to find work.

Hefner did not seek Monroe’s consent before publishing the photographs. In Marilyn: Her Life in Her Own Words, she said: “I even had to buy a copy of the magazine to see myself in it.”

Hefner supposedly called the actress “the ultimate blonde”. He told the LA Times: “Spending eternity next to Marilyn is too sweet to pass up.”