For a man who has spent almost his entire life with a bevy of stunning women, it is surprising to learn that Mr Hugh Hefner is committed to monogamous marriage.

Mr Hefner, the 86-year-old founder of Playboy magazine who made Ms Crystal Harris, 26, his third wife last December, said he has slept with over "a thousand women".

In an interview published in the latest edition of America's Esquire magazine, he said of the women: "Over a thousand, I'm sure."

There were chunks of my life when I was married, and when I was married I never cheated. "

His first wife was Mildred Williams, with whom he had two children, Christie, now 60, and David, 57. Next came Playmate Kimberley Conrad, with whom he had two more children, Marston, 22, and Cooper, 21. And now Crystal Harris.

But the women in between, the girlfriends, Bunnies and aspirants, blur into a kind of a mental hurricane. Perhaps that's why he has been unable to come up with the exact number of women he has bedded in his long and eventful life.

The magazine magnate used to have multiple live-in girlfriends at the Playboy Mansion and his life with Holly Madison, Bridget Marquardt and Kendra Wilkinson was shown on reality TV series The Girls Next Door.

The media mogul said he is happier than ever with Harris and feels "very fortunate" to have found love again so late in life, the Daily Mail reported.

He said: "All our friends think it's made in heaven. It's only people who don't know us, who simply see us as stereotypes in terms of age and beauty, who don't.

"I just feel very, very fortunate to have found her at this stage in my life. I saved the best till last. I want the rest of my life to be very much like it is now. I want it to be like this."

Reason she married him

Following the marriage, Harris revealed the real reason why she tied the knot with him.

During an appearance on the Huffington Post Live last month, the model said she did it for "more security".

She said: "Well, for me it meant more security, knowing that I am the one for him.

"There are always girls in and out and always the feeling of maybe being replaced... And he made sure I didn't feel that way anymore and that was what the wedding was all about."

Harris added that she fell for him because she found him fascinating.

"When I first met him, I had never even met a celebrity in my life before," she said.

"I was like 'Oh my gosh Hef' and then we started talking."

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