Audiences were first introduced to Kristina and Karissa Shannon in 2008 via "The Girls Next Door." The Clearwater, Florida natives moved into the Playboy Mansion that October, and by June of 2009, they were officially Playmates. The twins posed in the magazine together, and in an interview with the Tampa Bay Times, they expressed their excitement over being featured in the magazine. They even sang Hugh Hefner's praises at the time. "He's fun. He's nice, really laid-back. He's all about having fun. Everyone gets along with him. He's very, very smart," Kristina told the Florida publication.

As the Shannon twins would document later, life at the Mansion for Kristina and Karissa wasn't fun for long. Kristina and Karissa appeared in the A&E documentary series "Secrets of Playboy" and noted that when they agreed to move into the Mansion, neither believed that Hefner was having sex with all of the women who lived with him. The Shannon twins claimed that on the night of their 19th birthday, Hefner gave them each a pill and forced them to perform sexual acts they were not comfortable with. "After that night, I didn't feel like my body was mine anymore. Like, I felt used, disgusted," Kristina said, as reported by People. In 2010, two years and many traumas later, the Shannon twins moved out of the Mansion.