Biography
Blonde bombshell Holly Madison went from model to reality star thanks to her relationship with Playboy founder Hugh Hefner near the end of his life. Born Holly Sue Cullen in Astoria, Oregon in December of 1979, the future model and reality television star moved with her family to Prince of Wales Island at two. Life moved slower in that secluded, picturesque region of the Alaskan Panhandle, and Madison was a tween when her family set their sights back on Oregon. St. Helens, to be exact, and it was there she remained until it was time to further her education by studying psychology and theater at Portland State University. Two years later, after relocating to Los Angeles to attend Loyola Marymount University, the bubbly beauty was working as a Hawaiian Tropic model and waiting tables at Hooters to pay her tuition. The modeling jobs became more frequent, and by the time Madison turned 20 she was a familiar face at the Playboy Mansion. By the time she was invited to move in a year later, Madison was practically family. She would never become a Playboy Playmate, though she arguably achieved an even greater level of fame than most "bunnies" when she emerged as the breakout star of the reality show "The Girls Next Door" (E! 2005-09) in 2005.Throughout the course of her four-year run on "The Girls Next Door," Madison emerged as the most likely candidate to walk down the aisle with the notoriously frisky Hef. Yet despite admissions that she would have loved to have mothered Hef's children, marriage just wasn't in the cards for the pair. By February of 2009, the sixth season of "The Girls Next Door" was drawing to a close. Unable to put the founder of Playboy on lockdown and unable to endure the awkwardness of still working on his team, Madison announced that she was leaving the company to pursue new creative endeavors. By the end of 2009, Madison was back in the reality television game with "Holly's World" (E! 2009-2010). The show, which documented Madison's Las Vegas adventures while performing in Planet Hollywood's popular burlesque "Peepshow," ran for two seasons. Despite originally being hired on to "Peepshow" as Kelly Monaco's replacement, Madison's initial, three-month contract was soon extended to a full-year. One year soon became four, and in 2013, Madison married Pasqualle Rotella, and departed the show to focus on motherhood. Madison had married Pasquale Rotella in 2013. In March of that year, the couple welcomed a daughter. A baby brother followed three years later, and though Rotella announced that the couple was separating in late 2018, he assured fans that both parents were committed to raising the siblings in a loving and supportive environment. Never one to shy away from talk about her experience with cosmetic surgery, Madison revealed to People Magazine in 2011 that she had taken out a one-million insurance policy on her breasts after receiving implants. In 2015, Madison documented her relationship with Hefner in the New York Times bestseller Down the Rabbit Hole: Curious Adventures and Cautionary Tales of a Former Playboy Bunny. A second memoir, entitled The Vegas Diaries: Romance, Rolling the Dice and the Road to Reinvention, followed in 2016.
