Former Playboy Playmate Karissa Shannon is preparing for a very different chapter of her life. Now 37, pregnant with her first child and engaged to be married, the former Girls Next Door star says she has worked hard to leave the chaos of her younger years behind and build the quieter life she always wanted.
Shannon spent two years living at Hugh Hefner’s Playboy Mansion before moving to Las Vegas and eventually returning to her native Michigan. Looking back, she told Page Six that years of being exposed to the spotlight left her craving something ordinary. “I was overstimulated and overexposed for so long that I just yearned for something normal,” she explained.
That stability appears to have arrived with her new fiancé, who proposed on her birthday last month after a romantic dinner at Highlands Detroit. The couple watched the sunset from a restaurant 71 floors above the water, with Michigan on one side and his native Canada on the other. Shannon described the moment as a fairytale proposal, although she is keeping his identity private, explaining that “privacy is peace, and privacy is power”.
She did offer a few details about the man she plans to marry. He is 44, from Windsor, Ontario, enjoys hockey and yoga, and has helped her develop healthier drinking habits. More importantly, she says he accepts her past, supports her career and stands up for her when she faces criticism online. The couple are also preparing to welcome a baby boy named Genesis, due in April, and share a puppy called Arlo.
Shannon is continuing to work, too. She has launched an account on OhChat, an AI-powered adult platform that allows her to control what she shares through a virtual version of herself. She is also developing a documentary with investigative journalist Lisa Guerrero, revisiting allegations of sexual abuse that she and her twin sister, Kristina, have said they experienced while living at the Playboy Mansion between the ages of 18 and 20.
Her experiences with Hefner have also shaped how she intends to raise her son. Shannon says she wants Genesis to grow up with values she believes were missing from the image Hefner presented. “I want him to be a gentleman, and I want him to have manners, and I want him to lead with his heart,” she said. For Shannon, building that future means making sure her son grows up with a very different idea of what it means to be a man.
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Last modified: November 9, 2026
