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Kendra Wilkinson’s Son Hank is All Grown Up in Rare Photo!
Kendra Wilkinson plans to be an open book with her kids.
Indeed, The Girls Next Door alum recently shared why she won’t keep her past living in the Playboy Mansion alongside Hugh Hefner from her kids Hank Jr., 14, and Alijah, 10—whom she shares with ex Hank Baskett.
“I don’t hide,” Kendra told E! News in an exclusive interview at the American Reality Television Awards Nov. 18. “The one thing I don't do is hide my past from the kids.”
But Kendra admits that her openness didn’t always come so easily.
“I have done so much work on myself, through therapy and through meds and through anything I possibly can do to really come to peace with everything, like I burned out with worry,” she explained. “I'm done with worrying.”
Indeed, Kendra said that finding solace in her past has been “the biggest part” of her personal evolution.
“It's telling,” she continued. “I'm able to tell the kids what mom has been through, not hide anything, show them that you can be okay through anything and everything, and you can work your way past anything in the world and be okay.”
And while the 39-year-old plans to share it, she has also accepted that not every part of her past will be memories she’ll necessarily want to recall.
“These last 20 years of reality TV haven't been just glorious and happiness and cutesy,” she added. “It's been a huge up and down roller coaster ride. I'm so blessed to have it.”
Still, Kendra insisted that she won’t be keeping anything from her brood.
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“If they want to know something, they ask and I tell them,” she emphasized. “We just have a very open communication, relationship, and they appreciate that so much.”
Kendra also alluded to her kids’ understanding. After all, she admitted that the event—during which she acted as a presenter—conflicted with her son’s first high school basketball game.
“He was like, ‘Mama, there's going to be millions of games,’” she said of her son’s support in her attending the 11th annual award show over his own milestone, as she expressed disappointment, “It’s amazing to watch him play. He’s on his way to the NBA, period.”
To see where Kendra and more Girls Next Door stars are today, keep reading...
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Kendra Wilkinson
Kendra Wilkinson was one of Playboy founder Hugh Hefner's three live-in girlfriends when the show premiered in 2005. Fans were so invested in Wilkinson that she got her own spin-off show, Kendra, on E! after leaving the series in 2009.
Her subsequent WE tv series, Kendra On Top, which followed her journey as a mother of two, son Hank IV (born Sept. 11, 2009) and daughter Alijah (May 16, 2014), and her marriage to NFL player Hank Baskett, who she swapped vows with at the Playboy Mansion on June 27, 2009.
The couple split up in 2018 and their divorce was finalized the following year. In 2021, Kendra's got a real estate license and starring on her own Discovery+ series, Kendra Sells Hollywood.
And while the series is on hiatus as Kendra puts her real estate career on pause, she has been teasing a new reality series as of late.
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Bridget Marquardt
From investigating the mansion's possible haunted past to planning Hef's birthday, Bridget was No. 1. Her skin was ready to be shown on the Travel Channel's Bridget's Sexiest Beaches and she had cameos in the likes of Entourage, The House Bunny and Curb Your Enthusiasm.
Marquardt's interest in the paranormal has come full circle as host of the podcast Ghost Bunny, featuring interviews with celebs who've experienced the unexplainable and other deep dives into various unsolved mysteries with the help of experts. She also began hosting the Girls Next Level podcast with Holly Madison in 2022.
Once part of an iconic trio, she happily paired off long ago with partner Nicholas Carpenter.
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Holly Madison
Holly Madison had a successful career after her tenure at the Playboy Mansion, including competing on Dancing with the Stars before getting her own show, Holly's World, that centered around her career in Las Vegas, including her Peepshow residency.
She published a revealing memoir about her time in the Playboy Mansion, Down the Rabbit Hole: Curious Adventures and Cautionary Tales of a Former Playboy Bunny, in 2015, chasing that it with 2016's The Vegas Diaries: Romance, Rolling the Dice and the Road to Reinvention.
The longtime PETA advocate is mom to daughter Rainbow (March 5, 2013) and son Forest (Aug. 7, 2016) with ex-husband Pasquale Rotella.
In addition to participating in the scathing A&E docuseries Secrets of Playboy, she described having a complicated relationship with her Girl Next Door co-stars on a 2021 episode of the podcast Call Her Daddy. "Bridget and I have always been close," she said. "We've always been friends since day one. She is [the sweetest]." When asked if she had a relationship with Kendra, Holly tersely replied, "No."
Indeed, Holly proves her and Bridget's bond each week on the Girls Next Level podcast. She also currently hosts Lethally Blonde on Discovery Plus.
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Crystal Harris
While all of the ladies of The Girls Next Door had a special place in Hefner's heart, Crystal Harris actually married the Playboy mogul in 2012, the then-86-year-old's third trip down the aisle. They remained together until his death in 2017.
After Holly spoke out about her relationship with her co-stars, Crystal was quick to pick a side. "I was at the mansion for a DECADE almost four years ago now and these ladies and their drama were there years before that," she wrote on her MeWe account. "So much time has passed. I side with Kendra here."
"Not sure why these women who shared an incredibly uncommon and rare experience (that will never be repeated in our lifetimes) can't get along?" she continued. "Maybe for the same reasons Holly and Bridget despise me for absolutely NO reason. I hope one day we can all get along and compare experiences."
Crystal also became an advocate for Lyme disease awareness after announcing she'd been diagnosed with the illness in 2016.
In 2024, she debuted her relationship with Jim Ward and announced she would be reverting back to using her maiden name after going by Crystal Hefner following her 2012 nuptials.
"I'm in a much better place," Crystal told E! News, seven years after Hefner's death. "Next step is definitely going back to my original last name and finally taking that last step to just be myself."
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Kristina and Karissa Shannon
After the first generation of The Girls Next Door girlfriends left, twins Kristina and Karissa Shannon moved into the Playboy Mansion in 2009. During the remaining seasons, they celebrated their Playboy Summer Issue in Vegas, went camping in the backyard with Hef and prepared for bit parts in Sofia Coppola's Chateau Marmont-set movie Somewhere.
After the show wrapped, Kristina and Karissa joined the ninth season of Celebrity Big Brother and opened a salon together, Glam Beverly Hills.
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