Ex-Playmate Holly Madison turned down spot on huge reality show for hilarious reason

Holly Madison is finally ready to embrace her inner “Traitor” — but only after a hilarious misunderstanding cost her a shot at the show’s very first season.

While chatting with Page Six’s “Virtual Reali-Tea” about her new partnership with Seeking.com and its National Breakup Campaign, the former Playboy Playmate reveals that she was actually approached to appear in 2023’s inaugural season of the hit reality competition “The Traitors.” 

But at the time, Madison says she had no idea what the series was about — and assumed producers had a very specific reason for calling her.

“The Scottish castle’s definitely speaking to me!” Madison jokes. “But you know what’s funny is, I was asked to do the first season, but I turned it down because I didn’t really know what it was.”

The reality star’s confusion stemmed from the show’s name — and the complicated public narrative surrounding her past relationship with late Playboy founder Hugh Hefner.

“I thought they were picking me to be on ‘Traitors’ because they thought I was a traitor for writing a book about Hef,” she explains with a laugh. “And I’m like, ‘Well, I’m not falling for this.’ So I turned it down.”

Madison famously detailed her experiences living at the Playboy Mansion — and her eventual split from Hefner — in her 2015 memoir, “Down the Rabbit Hole: Curious Adventures and Cautionary Tales of a Former Playboy Bunny,” which became a bestseller and sparked widespread conversation about life behind the mansion gates.

Now that she actually understands the premise of “The Traitors,” however, Madison says she would absolutely reconsider joining the show — especially if it came with one very specific casting request.

“Yes, I would!” she tells us. “Especially if they cast me and Trisha Paytas on the same season. That would be my favorite thing ever.”

Madison, of course, is no stranger to reality TV. Fans first got to know her on the long-running E! series “The Girls Next Door,” which followed life at the Playboy Mansion. She later starred in her own Las Vegas–based spinoff, “Holly’s World,” which aired for two seasons from 2010 to 2011.

Looking back, Madison says that chapter of her life remains one of her happiest.

“I had so much fun doing that show,” she says. “I have a couple different periods of my life that I look back on and I’m like, ‘That’s one of my favorite periods’ — and that was definitely it. When I was new in Vegas and doing a show on the strip and doing that show, I had so much fun through all of it. It was amazing.”

The experience also left her with lasting friendships.

“And even [former ‘Holly’s World’ co-star] Angel [Porrino], she’s coming by [my] ‘Girl’s Next Level’ [podcast] today and we’re recording with her,” Madison continues. “We’re still friends and it’s just one of my favorite memories.”

These days, Madison isn’t actively chasing another reality show — though she’s not completely ruling it out either.

“I don’t miss the drama,” she admits. “I think if somebody came up with some kind of unique concept for me that I was into, I’d consider it. But I feel like I’m at a point in my life, like, I don’t want my kids on camera at all and I want to be able to have a relationship without the cameras getting into it.”

She adds, “If it was something I participated in and it was me going out to do something, then yes.” 

For now, Madison is focused on her latest collaboration with Seeking.com and its National Breakup Campaign — a partnership that feels especially fitting given her own outlook on heartbreak.

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“You know, I was looking back on, like, different breakups I’ve had in my adult life. And I feel like good things come right after. So I felt like I was the perfect person for this campaign,” she shares.

“We believe that breakups … I mean, feel your feelings, but you shouldn’t be sad forever. And you should look at it more as like an opening and a chance for a new beginning.”

In fact, Madison says breakups have often marked the beginning of her best chapters.

“As I get older, I can look back on past breakups and just be like, ‘But this was a really good thing,’ and you go on to the next phase of your life — so it gets a little bit easier every time,” she notes.

“It’s still hurtful, and you definitely have to take a minute to like, feel that, whether you want to like bed-rot for a few days or whatever. But usually, really good things come after. I feel like I’m really magnetic from a manifestation standpoint, right after a breakup.”