18 July 2025 – Crystal Hefner is officially taking steps to leave her past behind by filing to legally change her name back to Crystal Margaret Harris, the surname she used before marrying Playboy founder Hugh Hefner in 2012.
Now 39 and newly engaged to James Ward, Crystal has submitted a formal petition in California to revert to her birth name, according to court documents obtained by People magazine. While no court date has been listed yet, California law requires public notice and a formal hearing before a name change becomes official.
This decision marks a powerful next chapter in Crystal’s journey of reclaiming her autonomy, which she began years ago after Hugh Hefner’s death in 2017 at age 91.
In her candid 2023 memoir, Only Say Good Things: Surviving Playboy and Finding Myself, Crystal revealed she was never truly in love with Hef.
“I was never in love with Hef,” she wrote. “But I loved this old man in the ways you are supposed to love your elders… Life in the mansion wasn’t the fairy tale I had once hoped it would be.”
Crystal also opened up about feeling controlled and diminished during her marriage, recounting how Hefner insisted she keep bleach-blonde hair, stay thin, and maintain surgically enhanced features.
“He wanted me to be helpless, be small… to be seen and not speak,” she said on The Tamron Hall Show. “I became whatever he wanted.”
She detailed how he would physically tap her head when her brunette roots showed and even once slapped her thigh, telling her to “tone up.”
In a deeply personal turning point, Crystal had “everything fake” removed from her body by 2022 and began speaking out about the toxic dynamics she experienced.
“It seemed like a world of success and fantasy,” she told People, “but everyone’s having to sleep with an 80-year-old. There’s a price. Everything has a price.”
Her name change is more than symbolic—it’s a statement of personal freedom, self-ownership, and healing. As Crystal prepares for her next chapter with fiancé James Ward, she continues to distance herself from a past she says never truly belonged to her.
