Kendra Wilkinson Says She Was Hospitalized Due To Trauma From Her Playboy Days

Kendra Wilkinson is opening up about how a mental health emergency is helping her unpack unresolved trauma.

In a People exclusive published Tuesday, the former Playboy playmate and reality star told the magazine that in September of last year she had a panic attack so severe that her ex-husband and former NFL player, Hank Baskett, rushed her to the emergency room.

Wilkinson, now 38, said that when the attack occurred she “didn’t know what was going on in my head and my body or why I was crying.”

“I was dying of depression,” she told People. “I was hitting the end of my life, and I went into psychosis. I felt like I wasn’t strong enough to live anymore.”

Wilkinson said that just a week after her initial panic attack, she returned to the emergency room. Soon after her second hospitalization, she began outpatient therapy three times a week at UCLA. It was there that she learned that her panic attacks and depression were due in part to her 2019 divorce from Baskett — but more largely stemmed from her time living with Hugh Hefner in his notorious Playboy mansion.

“Playboy really messed my whole life up,” Wilkinson said.

“It’s not easy to look back at my 20s. I’ve had to face my demons,” she added.

Wilkinson moved into Hefner’s mansion when she was 18 years old and he was 60 years her senior. Wilkinson — along with fellow former playmates Holly Madison and Bridget Marquardt — eventually acted as Hefner’s three main girlfriends. Their polygamous arrangement was the basis of the reality show “The Girls Next Door” that aired from 2005 to 2010, and it was clear from the series that Hefner had complete control over his much younger girlfriend’s appearances and lives.

Wilkinson implied to People that she was not emotionally