Cooper Hefner Blasts Playboy CEO for No-Nudity Policy

Cooper Hefner, son of cultural icon Hugh Hefner, has been pushed out as a board advisor to Playboy for disagreeing with a slew of dramatic new decisions pioneered by CEO Scott Flanders.


In October Playboy made the decision to ban nudity made international headlines, as did listing the Playboy mansion for sale in January with term that said the elder Hefner could reside their until his death.

Cooper said Foley asked him stop attending board meetings after objecting to moves like banning nudity form the legendary magazine. He said “I do not agree with the decisions and direction the company is actually going in. I was essentially asked to no longer participate in the board meetings because I didn’t agree with his vision for the company. You either sort of take a step back and say, ‘Ok, I’m going to let this happen’ or you do something about it. I was in the boardroom when the conversation was being had about whether we should go non-nude with the magazine as well as the company, and I didn’t agree with the decision. I felt as though millennial and Gen-Y didn’t view nudity as the issue. The issue was the way in which the nudity and the issue was portrayed.”

Hefner now serves as the CEO of new media publication Hop.