Crystal Hefner is ready to take back her maiden name eight years after Hugh Hefner’s death.
Crystal, 39, detailed her struggles with getting Instagram to change her username to her maiden moniker, Harris, on Thursday, June 12. She included screenshots of messages from Meta Support telling her that her case was being worked on, as well as an image that showed her attempting to input a username of random letters. An error message popped up that read, “Username is not available.”
“To everyone I’ve had to block: I’m exhausted. If you’ve harassed me, you’re gone. I don’t owe anyone access to my peace,” Crystal began in the caption. “But to those who are here with open hearts, who genuinely support my journey — thank you.”
The model explained that she has “been trying for so long” to get the social media platform to allow her to change her username “back to [her] real name.”
“My original name. The name I didn’t feel comfortable with for a long time, because it never felt like mine anymore,” she continued. “It was changed for me. Not thoughtfully, not ceremoniously. It was done swiftly, as soon as Hef’s secretary had a marriage certificate in hand. I had no clue how to change a name legally. I just … became someone else, overnight.”
Crystal added that she “embraced” the Hefner name over time because she was told she “had to.”
“The media and the trolls of the world told me I wasn’t enough without the name, without the house, without the image. I came from nothing. I had spent a lifetime feeling small. So I clung to the story I was fed. And it worked — for a while,” she wrote.
Crystal said she became inspired when she heard Scooter Braun share on Steven Bartlett’s “The Diary of a CEO” podcast that the 43-year-old “didn’t believe he could accomplish great things with his birth name, Scott,” and became Scooter instead.
“I understood that deeply. Because I did accomplish things with the Hefner name. I made eight figures. I launched businesses. I found a version of confidence,” Crystal continued. “But here’s the thing — none of that was ever about the name. It was about me. And now, I want my name back. Crystal Margaret Harris. Not because I’m ashamed of who I was — but because I finally know who I am.”
Crystal concluded by asking fans to reach out if they have a “backdoor to Instagram,” explaining that the app would not let her change her username at all.
“I’ve also received ‘You need permission’ messages when trying to change my account name as well. Thank you,” she wrote.
In the comments, one person explained that the issue was likely due to Crystal’s account being verified, noting that she would have to get the verified check mark removed before making any username changes.
Crystal married Hugh at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles on New Year’s Eve 2012, Us Weekly confirmed at the time. She had been living in the mansion since 2008. The couple remained together until Hugh’s death at 91 years old in September 2017.
In the years since Hugh’s passing, Crystal — who is now engaged to James Ward — has pulled back the curtain on her marriage to the Playboy founder. She shared several candid confessions in her 2024 memoir, Only Say Good Things: Surviving Playboy and Finding Myself.
“I was never in love with Hef, but I loved this old man in the ways you are supposed to love your elders,” she wrote. “In the ways you are supposed to love someone who is nearing the end of a long and complicated life.”
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