Hugh Hefner's cause of death according to his death certificate.

Just over a week on from the death of 91-year-old Playboy mogul Hugh Hefner, his cause of death has been documented as respiratory failure following a cardiac arrest.

Hefner’s offical death certificate which was released by the Los Angeles Department of Public Health, further noted he had been battling e. coli and septicaemia for six days before his death.

“The e.coli strain he had was so severe, it was highly resistant to antibiotics,” website The Blast, which first published the death certificate, reported.

The news comes after the publisher was laid to rest in a private funeral surrounded by family and friends last Saturday.

Hefner had purchased the grave site crypt next to where actress Marilyn Monroe is buried for US$75,000,  so he could spend eternity by her side.

“I feel a double connection to her, because she was the launching key to the beginning of Playboy,” Hefner told CBS Los Angeles in 2012. “We were born the same year.”

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Hefner wanted to be buried next to his magazine’s very first cover girl.

Except, the truth is that Hefner and Monroe never met. In fact, he almost ruined her career by publishing nude photos of her without her consent.

This fact was highlighted in a post by Sarah Vaughn Patzel on New Wave Feminist at the weekend that quickly went viral and was shared more than 42,000 times.