Layla Recalls Turning Down $250,000 Playboy Shoot During WWE Run

Layla turned down an offer to pose for Playboy during her time in WWE, something she recently reflected on during a new interview. The WWE alumna was with the company from 2006 through 2015. In the early part of her career, a number of WWE talent did nude pictorials for the magazine including the late Ashley Massaro, Candice Michelle, and Maria Kanellis before the company entered its PG era in July of 2008.

Layla noted on Insight With Chris Van Vliet that she was given an offer to do Playboy after Kanellis did her shoot and was offered $250,000 to do so. She noted that she was scared to do so because of her family’s potential reaction, and is ultimately glad she said no. You can see highlights below:

On Turning Down Playboy:

“Yes. Well, actually, it wasn’t just me at first. So, what happened was we were called into the office, and it was Kelly Kelly, Brooke Adams, and myself. I think it was 2007, I think Maria actually did the cover, and they were like, we want to do extreme expose for Playboy, and I was like, no. I’m not too sure what they said, but then because I didn’t want to do extreme expose, they offered Kelly Kelly and myself individually, and I think they’d offered me like $250,000 to do it. I was like, no, I’m not doing it.”

On Why She Said No:

“Honestly, I was really scared, because a lot of people don’t know this, I’m Arab. So my actual family, I’m an immigrant in England, but I’m of Moroccan heritage. So I was concerned that my family, who were Muslim. I was always told don’t do anything like that, you can’t, so I was also very scared of what [they would think]. My brother would have been so mad. So that’s why I said no. I was just like, I think that’s going too far. What I’m doing already is a lot with them and all the modeling stuff. I’m glad I said no, because I really couldn’t see myself going through the shoot. But I’m also sad I said no, because I could have probably retired that year.”