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Former Playboy model and Girls Next Door star Karissa Shannon has resurfaced after quitting Hollywood for a quiet life in her home state of Michigan.

Karissa and her twin sister Kristina, best known as the Shannon twins, both moved into the Playboy Mansion when they were just 18 and then started dating Hugh Hefner shortly after.

The siblings starred on the final season of E!'s The Girls Next Door alongside Crystal Hefner, which positioned the trio as the replacements for the show's former leading ladies, Holly Madison, Kendra Wilkinson and Bridget Marquardt.

Karissa, now 36, has now left the bright lights of Los Angeles behind and moved back home to try and start a family, but she resurfaced last week to discuss her new life on Lisa Guerrero's Unleashed podcast.

'I was like, you know what? Get out of the spotlight, cut the lights, cut the cameras, let me go find out where I want to live, where I can be in privacy, no one knows who I am, and live a normal life and just figure out what I want to do,' she explained.

'I needed a moment to myself where I can just build on my inner self... Get healthy habits, fully detox, get away from the circle of people that I was around,' she continued.

Karissa Shannon and her twin sister Kristina, best known as the Shannon twins, moved into the Playboy Mansion when they were just 18 and then started dating Hugh Hefner shortly after; pictured 2010

The siblings starred on the final season of E!'s The Girls Next Door alongside Crystal Hefner, in addition to being the Playboy mogul's girlfriends; pictured 2009

'So what I want more than anything is to be a housewife, be a mother, I want to be able to give my kids what I didn't have.'

She added, 'I want a normal family life. I want a husband. I want to be in true love, I want real love. And I'm dating right now.'

While Karissa still boasts her signature tanned skin and platinum blonde hair, the former Playboy centerfold now looks much different than the fresh-faced teenager that fans were first introduced to on the E! Network.

'She's lost a lot of weight I hope she's doing well and is getting not only physically healthy but emotionally and mentally with everything she's been through,' wrote one fan.

'She looks great,' commented another, while a third wrote, 'This isn't one of the twins... Looks nothing like her!'

Karissa also told Guerrero that she's spending less time with her twin Kristina so that the siblings 'can do their own thing' and find their own individuality.

'I like to be a real person and be honest and be myself and I can't do that when I'm stuck together with somebody,' she said.

'We were always pushed that in our career, to be the same person, dress alike and do the same things, but we're really different.'

Karissa, now 36, has now left the bright lights of Los Angeles behind and moved back home to try and start a family, but she resurfaced last week to discuss her new life

The former Playboy centerfold looked unrecognizable on Lisa Guerrero's Unleashed podcast

The Shannon twins are pictured posing up a storm at the Playboy Mansion in 2011

When pressed about her time dating Hefner and living in the Playboy Mansion, Karissa said that she was never attracted to Hefner because 'obviously he was too old', but she admitted that she enjoyed having the millionaire take care of her.

'His power that he had and the brand that he had and being able to take care of me... I've never been taken care of, I've always had to take care of myself,' she reflected.

'I did get a lot of opportunities from being on the Girls Next Door show and from dating Hef, but also, who knows where I could have went if I would've went my own direction and just been a Playmate.'

The Shannon twins both spoke out against Hefner in A&E's 12-part tell-all docuseries Secrets of Playboy back in 2022.

Not only did they both claim to have caught chlamydia after having a threesome with Hefner on their 19th birthday, Karissa also said that she'd gotten pregnant from sleeping with Hefner, who would have been 84 at the time.

She then said that she'd had a secret abortion behind his back in order to avoid any paparazzi or unwanted media attention.

A&E noted in a statement attached to the series that 'the vast majority of allegations have not been the subject of criminal investigations or charges, and they do not constitute proof of guilt.'

Karissa and Kristina moved into the Playboy Mansion in 2009 when they were just 18

The twin sisters shocked fans when they appeared on A&E's Secrets of Playboy docuseries in 2022

The twins, along with Crystal, are all pictured with Hefner during a night out in 2009

Additionally, Hefner's ex-girlfriend Holly Madison claimed in her 2015 memoir that she and Hefner tried to conceive through fertility treatment, but that Hefner's sperm was 'not viable'.

When directly questioned about Karissa's abortion story on an episode of the Juicy Scoop podcast in 2022, Madison called it 'surprising'.

'I'm never gonna say that I don't believe anybody's story because I wasn't there and anything can happen, but it's surprising,' she said.

Like many of the young women who found themselves falling into sex work, the Shannon twins had a difficult upbringing.

With an unstable upbringing, they were raised by their grandmother and lived in a trailer park for several years, dropping out of school to get jobs at a Hooters-style restaurant at just 15.

When they were 17, a photographer suggested that they take nude photos to send to Playboy — and by 18, they were flown to Miami for a test shoot, which was cut short halfway through when Hefner called to say he liked the images.

Karissa has now quit Hollywood for a quiet life in Michigan, claiming that she needed to get away from the spotlight and her old circle of friends; pictured 2015 with Blac Chyna

The twins appeared on an episode of Botched in 2015

They'd soon be named the July and August 2009 Playmates and were invited to live in the Playboy Mansion and to star on Girls Next Door.

The twins admitted their naiveté in accepting this offer, saying that they thought the invitation to become Hefner's girlfriends really just meant they were being asked to be on the show.

They claimed on Secrets of Playboy that they believed Hefner's image was fake and that he wasn't actually having sex with any of the models in the mansion.

'Hell no, you don't think an 80-year-old man is sleeping with three of these women,' Karissa said.

They eventually started having sex with him after turning 19, and while they claim that they hated the experience, even comparing it to 'rape', they didn't want to leave the mansion and risk losing career opportunities.

'Coming from [abuse] and our biological mom leaving, we really felt like we had to take care of our grandmother who raised us. And we didn't want him to take away all of the success we had built. We thought he'd revoke our centerfold,' they said.

The twins parted ways with Hefner after E! canceled The Girls Next Door in 2010.

They remained in the spotlight for a few years after that, most notably starring on Celebrity Big Brother in the UK in 2012.

They later moved into doing hardcore pornography, shooting X-rated scenes with adult studios including Brazzers.

While Karissa has left adult entertainment behind her, her sister Kristina recently launched her own AI-generated chatbot, which is based on her likeness.

Kristina also has her own OnlyFans page and is based in Miami, where she continues to work as a model.