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Playboy founder Hugh Hefner claims ageism has been the biggest obstacle he has had to overcome in a career marked by controversy.
Hefner, a staunch civil rights campaigner and women's liberation advocate in the '50s and '60s, has spoken out in defence of his upcoming third marriage to a former Playmate of the Year who is a third of his age.
"To begin with I fought racism, then sexism, now I'm fighting ageism," he said while in the UK to mark the reopening of the revamped London Playboy Club.
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The 85-year-old magazine mogul, who is set to marry his 24-year-old fiancée Crystal Harris later this month, has said that it's only other people who have difficulty comprehending their 61-year-age difference.
"If you're in good health, age is just a number. I'm consistent. When I was 20 I was dating 20-year-old girls and now I'm 85 and I'm still dating them," he added.
"We have lots in common. A very similar sense of humour. I can't forsee having a happier relationship than this one in the years ahead for me.
"One defines oneself in one's own terms. If you let society and your peers define who you are, you're less for it," he continued.
Despite his critics, Hefner has managed to continue and grow the Playboy legacy since launching the inaugural issue of the gentleman's magazine, with Marilyn Monroe gracing the cover, in 1953.
"The Playboy man likes nothing more than mixing up cocktails and an hors d'oeuvre or two, putting a little mood music on the phonograph, and inviting a female acquaintance for a quiet discussion on Picasso, Nietzsche, jazz, sex," his first editor-in-chief note read.
Fast forward almost 60 years and the pyjama clad "Hef" is still in the full glare of the zeitgeist thanks to the iconic bunny brand, numerous reality TV shows and cameos and a social media savvy, which has created both him and his former platinum playmates - including Holly Madison and Kendra Wilkinson-Baskett - a large and younger generation of fans.
He insists the Playboy brand continues to promote a positive image to women and that it's already large female fan base is growing.
"We live in a post-feminist society where a lot of women have grown up watching things like the popular reality show that was set in the Playboy mansion. The majority of viewers of that show were young women," he said.
"I'm on Twitter and get fan messages, a lot from young women, who love Playboy and love the bunny."
Hefner and Harris are due to exchange vows in front of 300 friends and family at the Playboy Mansion on June 19. The couple confirmed to the world that they were engaged via Twitter late last year.
"Yes the ring I gave Crystal is an engagement ring. I didn't mean to make a mystery out of it. A very merry Christmas to all," he posted on December 26 before Harris retweeted it.
Hefner, a staunch civil rights campaigner and women's liberation advocate in the '50s and '60s, has spoken out in defence of his upcoming third marriage to a former Playmate of the Year who is a third of his age.
"To begin with I fought racism, then sexism, now I'm fighting ageism," he said while in the UK to mark the reopening of the revamped London Playboy Club.
Advertisement: Story continues below
The 85-year-old magazine mogul, who is set to marry his 24-year-old fiancée Crystal Harris later this month, has said that it's only other people who have difficulty comprehending their 61-year-age difference.
"If you're in good health, age is just a number. I'm consistent. When I was 20 I was dating 20-year-old girls and now I'm 85 and I'm still dating them," he added.
"We have lots in common. A very similar sense of humour. I can't forsee having a happier relationship than this one in the years ahead for me.
"One defines oneself in one's own terms. If you let society and your peers define who you are, you're less for it," he continued.
Despite his critics, Hefner has managed to continue and grow the Playboy legacy since launching the inaugural issue of the gentleman's magazine, with Marilyn Monroe gracing the cover, in 1953.
"The Playboy man likes nothing more than mixing up cocktails and an hors d'oeuvre or two, putting a little mood music on the phonograph, and inviting a female acquaintance for a quiet discussion on Picasso, Nietzsche, jazz, sex," his first editor-in-chief note read.
Fast forward almost 60 years and the pyjama clad "Hef" is still in the full glare of the zeitgeist thanks to the iconic bunny brand, numerous reality TV shows and cameos and a social media savvy, which has created both him and his former platinum playmates - including Holly Madison and Kendra Wilkinson-Baskett - a large and younger generation of fans.
He insists the Playboy brand continues to promote a positive image to women and that it's already large female fan base is growing.
"We live in a post-feminist society where a lot of women have grown up watching things like the popular reality show that was set in the Playboy mansion. The majority of viewers of that show were young women," he said.
"I'm on Twitter and get fan messages, a lot from young women, who love Playboy and love the bunny."
Hefner and Harris are due to exchange vows in front of 300 friends and family at the Playboy Mansion on June 19. The couple confirmed to the world that they were engaged via Twitter late last year.
"Yes the ring I gave Crystal is an engagement ring. I didn't mean to make a mystery out of it. A very merry Christmas to all," he posted on December 26 before Harris retweeted it.
