Hugh Hefner Interred Next to Marilyn Monroe in Private

Hugh Hefner was interred in a crypt next to Marilyn Monroe’s in a private ceremony on Saturday, attended by family and a few close associates. He had never met Monroe and purchased the crypt in 1992 for $75,000, long after her death.

Hefner's wife Crystal Harris, the publishing mogul's four children and some close Playboy staffers attended the funeral at the exclusive Westwood Village Memorial Park in Los Angeles, TMZ reported.

Hefner, who died last Wednesday at 91, featured a nude color photo of Monroe he purchased in his initial issue of Playboy in 1953, launching his publishing empire, The Washington Post reported. She appeared as the magazine's "Sweetheart of the Month," the predecessor to Playmate.

"I'm a believer in things symbolic," Hefner told the Los Angeles Times in 2009 about why he purchased the crypt. "Spending eternity next to Marilyn is too sweet to pass up."

Despite the connections in life and after death, Hefner told "Piers Morgan Live" on CNN in 2011 that he and Monroe, who died in 1962, never actually met face-to-face.

"She was actually in my brother's acting class in New York," Hefner told the television talk show. "But the reality is that I never met her. I talked to her once on the phone, but I never met her. She was gone, sadly, before I came."

TMZ said another Hefner Playboy connection near where he is buried is Dorothy Stratten, a Playboy Playmate who was murdered in 1980 by her estranged husband.

The Times said Westwood Village Memorial is also the final resting place for author Truman Capote, entertainer Dean Martin, singer and composer Mel Torme, and musician Frank Zappa.

"My father lived an exceptional and impactful life as a media and cultural pioneer and a leading voice behind some of the most significant social and cultural movements of our time in advocating free speech, civil rights and sexual freedom," Cooper Hefner, chief creative officer of Playboy Enterprises, said in a statement last week.

"He defined a lifestyle and ethos that lie at the heart of the Playboy brand, one of the most recognizable and enduring in history."

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