I was also dating someone from UCLA and also I had another suitor, Jimmy Caan. So it was between my college boyfriend, Jimmy Caan and Hef. And Hef won. Within a few months, we were exclusive.

Anybody that was famous found their way to the Playboy Mansion. It was exciting for me. But I didn't know half of them!

When we first dated, I would not go home with Hef, so the only way that he could see me was by taking me out. We went out quite a bit.

When he died, he took a big piece of me with him. I'm sure that every time I do something, I'll think about having done it with Hef.

Bill Cosby was one of the first people I met at the Mansion, shortly after I met Hef in 1968.

Hef was very protective of the women who went to the Mansion.

Hef has always been attracted to younger women. He loves to see the world through the eyes of someone seeing it for the first time.

Circus lions are mean. They don't know anything about affection training.

I know that part of my success on stage is due to the fact that I've kept myself together.

But I'd like to be taken seriously as a singer.

People are surprised that I can walk and talk.

Nobody thought I could do anything with a singing career... except my singing teachers, who were accustomed to hearing voices that could be transformed into something.

It took me five years to learn how to sing.

I don't wish to sound chauvinistic, but I feel the female body is beautiful to look at, more so than a male's.

As for those who condemn Hef, he's done a great deal for women's lib and sexual liberation as well.

When I first met Hef, I didn't like him at all. I thought he was too old.

What I don't like is the way people automatically think I am a kept woman, that he pays my expenses. This puts me in a rage. I've always paid my own way, even while living in his mansion. I've kept an apartment of my own. In fact, I not only buy my own clothes, but many of Hef's, too - he just hates to shop.

I've lost a lot of fat and that's through weight lifting.

I have this problem where I'm never satisfied with what I do.

After three months of singing, Hef heard me practicing once. He tried to convince me to quit singing lessons because there was no chance of being good at it. Of course, I cried a lot when he said that, but it was my money that I was investing in lessons so I continued partly out of spite and partly because I really wanted to do it.

I will never be Barbra Streisand, but I have done an awful lot more than what I was sent out to be.

What I really want is to create a name based on my own accomplishments.

Of course, I'm not exactly the girl next door.

Actually, diamonds are a very common stone. I prefer emeralds.

Frankly my parents didn't like him. They objected to the things he stood for. Besides, daddy and Hef are the same age.

It's a hindrance in trying to get a serious acting role. The minute a producer has a script and my name comes up, they immediately think of 'Playboy,' 'Hee Haw,' 'Fantasy Island' and 'Love Boat.'

With Hef it was a relationship. It's the world that made a big thing out of it.

The new age disc jockeys and program directors have accepted me as a new age artist, along with Shadowfax and the rest, and they're playing my songs.

I considered Hef a one-woman man.

I'd like to play Vegas as a head-liner.

One thing I love is that I don't have a lot of people running around Hollywood saying 'I've had her,' because guys love to talk, especially about celebrities.

I honestly think that Hef had a lot to do with women making more money and getting better jobs. He's had a huge impact on the entire world, and I think that's for the better.

People recognized us together and our names were synonymous. Whenever you heard Barbi Benton, you think of Hugh Hefner. And I loved that. I was his girlfriend and he was my boyfriend.

One never knows when the angels are coming to get you, but everybody has to go.

When I first met Hef, I was a co-ed at UCLA.

It's not that I don't have talent. I've had four gold albums in Scandinavia and they never heard of me as anything but a singer.

I look at the feminine body as a piece of art.

At 35 women are at the bottom level of middle age but we can look like we are absolutely in our prime. Even if you're badly out of shape, you can put yourself in good shape in two years, maximum.

My young face keeps me in the running for youthful roles. If my face is going to look 22 then so should my body.

I was studying pre-med at UCLA when I decided show business was for me, and the best way to make it was in music. I had just one problem. I was tone deaf.

Most of all, I want to be known as Barbi Benton, the singer, not as Hugh Hefner's girlfriend.

My singing teacher said it would take three years before I could sing well enough to be accepted as a professional. They were wrong. It took me five years.

I like to perform in front of an audience.

I'd like to be known as something more than a girl who goes to lunch with her girl friends and goes shopping.

I'm very career-minded.

I think everyone should be creative in some way, otherwise you have no self-respect. That's why I believe in women working.

If it were up to me, I wouldn't have security. But Hef thinks I'm naive. He feels I'm vulnerable to kidnapping.

Hef is boring to cook for. He likes a total of four main dishes: fried chicken, pot roast, pork roast and pork chop sandwich!

There are some things I like that Hef likes, too. For example, Colonel Sanders' chicken is a standby. I've never been able to figure out how to recreate the combination of herbs they use to flavor the crust.

Let's face it, sightseeing can be a bore at times.