CELEBS FACTORY

Playboy mogul Hugh Hefner has become the latest victim of an internet death hoax.

A social network rumour began circulating Monday that said the 85-year-old Hefner had tragically passed away, reports contactmusic.com.

Hefner immediately took to microblogging site Twitter to scotch the rumour.

"The rumours of my death are, as Mark Twain observed in a similar situation, greatly exaggerated. I'm very much alive & kicking".

The couple have decided to cancel their nuptials just five days before they were due to tie the knot on Saturday (June 18) at the Playboy Mansion.

According to TMZ.com, 85-year-old Hugh and Crystal, 25, had a huge argument over the phone last weekend which resulted in the blonde model moving herself and her belongings out of the mansion.

Everything had been in place for the wedding, which was to be attended by over 300 guests.

Crystal had picked a pink Romona Keveza gown to wear and the flower arrangements had been selected to match the dress. Guests were looking forward to enjoying a lavish meal, finished off with a Torrance Baker strawberry cake.

Hugh's spokesperson Kellie Olisky previously said, "No expense is being spared for the wedding. It isn't even a compromise, because Hef wants Crystal to have the wedding of her dreams. Hef asked that the flowers be bursting with colour and this will look great with Crystal's lighter coloured theme everywhere else."

Crystal's two sisters and Playmate Anna Berglund were supposed to have been bridesmaids, while Hugh's brother Keith and the media mogul's sons Marston, 20, and Cooper, 19, had been asked to form the groom's party.

Hugh has been married twice before.

He wed his first wife Mildred Williams, with whom he has two children, daughter Christie, 58, and son David, 55, in 1949 before divorcing her 1959.

He then he tied the knot with one-time Playboy Playmate Kimberley Conrad, the mother of Marston and Cooper, in 1989, before filing for divorce 11 years later, although the separation was only finalised in March 2010.