Holly Madison says Hugh Hefner offered her Quaaludes on their first night out together

• Holly Madison said Hugh Hefner offered her Quaaludes during their first night out together.
• Madison made the accusation in a new episode of "Secrets of Playboy," which premiered Monday.

Holly Madison said Hugh Hefner offered her Quaaludes — the brand name for a prescription sedative that became a popular recreational drug during the 1970s and '80s — during their first night out in a group together and referred to them as "thigh-openers."

"The first night I went out with [Hefner] and the girls, I just kind of had it in my mind that I was gonna see what happened, and if I wasn't comfortable with it, I didn't have to do anything," Madison recalled in an interview in the second episode of A&E's 10-episode docuseries "Secrets of Playboy," which premiered its first two episodes on Monday.

"We went out to a night club, I was sitting next to Hef, and he leaned over and he asked if I wanted to take a Quaalude," she continued. "I said something like no, I don't do drugs."

According to the "Down the Rabbit Hole" author, Hefner told her that he "typically" didn't do Quaaludes either, but that "they used to call these thigh-openers in the '70s."

"I just thought it was really weird," Madison remembered. She went on to explain that she "drank a lot" that first night out due to nerves, and ended up going back to the mansion with Hefner and the other women, where she and the Playboy founder later had sex.

Representatives for Hefner's estate didn't immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment.

In another clip from a future episode of "Secrets of Playboy" released ahead of the premiere, a former employee of Hefner's who worked for the company from 1977 to 1989 said use of Quaaludes was rampant at the Playboy mansion.

"That is what the whole point of them was. They were a necessary evil, if you will, to the partying," Hefner's ex-assistant Lisa Loving Barrett said.

Barrett also said in the clip that she, as well as other employees and Hefner, had prescriptions in their names for Quaaludes.

"That enabled certainly four, and sometimes five, different prescriptions for the same medication, to feed the [Playboy] machine," Barrett said in the interview.

Former Playmate (and Hefner's ex-girlfriend) Sondra Theodore agreed that Quaaludes were a big part of life at the mansion.

"Hef pretended he wasn't involved in any hard drug use at the mansion, but that was just a lie," Theodore said in the same clip. "Quaaludes, down the line, were used for sex."

In a statement shared previously with Insider, Playboy emphasized its commitment to supporting and uplifting women.

"Today's Playboy is not Hugh Hefner's Playboy. We trust and validate these women and their stories and we strongly support those individuals who have come forward to share their experiences," the statement read in part. "As a brand with sex positivity at its core, we believe safety, security, and accountability are paramount. The most important thing we can do right now is actively listen and learn from their experiences."

New episodes of "Secrets of Playboy" are airing Mondays at 9 p.m. ET on A&E.