Hugh Hefner On Split With Crystal Harris: ‘It Was A Pretty Nice Ride’

Hugh Hefner has opened up about his “runaway bride,” Crystal Harris.

“I didn’t see it coming. I truly didn’t see it coming,” Hugh said during an interview, broadcast on CNN’s “Piers Morgan Tonight” on Thursday, of Crystal ending their engagement just days before they were set to wed in mid-June.

Now that he’s had time to digest the breakup, Hef said he still isn’t any clearer on what led to the split.

“That is the No. 1 question and I don’t have an answer for you,” he said. “I really don’t know what happened. I think that in time, the rest of the story will play out.”

When asked by the CNN host if he felt Crystal took him “for a ride,” Hef couldn’t say yes… or no.

“I think an argument could be made that she took me for a ride, but I must say, quite frankly, it was a pretty nice ride,” he said.

“If she was faking it, she did it very well,” Hef added.

The Playboy founder revealed that Crystal didn’t walk away with a fortune when she broke off their engagement.

He confirmed she took their Bentley and her engagement ring, which Hugh said was worth between $60-$70K, but she brought back something very close to his heart – their dog, Charlie.

Piers said many skeptics assumed the marriage would never have worked out anyway as she is just 25 and he is 85, and Hef said in hindsight, they could have been right.

“I think that’s a very valid question… I’m asking myself the same thing,” he said. “Where was my head? I made the commitment, quite frankly, because, in a previous relationship with Holly [Madison], I had not been there for her in the way that she wanted me to be and I just wanted to do whatever would make the relationship work [with Crystal].”

While the two are no longer together, Hef said the pair “remain friends.”