Nikki Grahame's Biography

Who is Nikki Grahame?

Nikki Grahame was a 24-year-old model and promo girl when she entered Big Brother. Nikki worked in Harlequin Shopping Centre for two years.

After going to Northwood secondary school in Hillingdon, Middlesex, Nikki trained as a beauty therapist.

According to her sister Natalie, Nikki's first love was Chris Jakes, whom she was with for 18 months. 

Before entering the Big Brother house dressed as a bunny girl, Nikki said that she would love to find romance in Big Brother. She had a go at it before on TV when she appeared on Blind Date, but the person she got matched with said: "Everyone's got a right to be dozy, but Nikki abused it".

Nikki Grahame came fourth in the 2004 Miss Hertfordshire and has an NVQ in beauty therapy.

Before entering Big Brother Nikki described herself as 'funny, ruthless, attractive'. 

They interviewed Nikki's friend Kyla Padwick, who said: "When I first met Nikki she weighed about four stone and was one of the worst cases I'd seen in that clinic ... Lots of anorexics have trouble with tap water, there's the assumption that it contains impurities and might make them fatter."

Nikki Grahame proved a hit with the public and E4 hired her to present her own show, Princess Nikki.

A sign of her popularity was that she got a thumping 63% of the public vote to be one of the four evicted housemates to be let into the house next door and regain a chance to win Big Brother. And then she took another step forward when the existing Big Brother housemates voted to have Nikki, rather than Grace, Mikey or Lea, join them.

However, it was not enough for Nikki Grahame to win and she finished fifth in Big Brother series 7.

After Big Brother, Nikki and the winner, Pete Bennett, started going out but broke up after a few months.

Also in 2006, Nikki Grahame went out with Duncan James, but it did not last.

At the 2006 National Television Awards, Nikki Grahame won the new category of TV contender beating, amongst others, her ex - Pete.

In 2009, she released an autobiography entitled Dying To Be Thin dealing with her battle with anorexia.

In 2010 Nikki returned to the Big Brother house - this time as one of the ultimate housemates.

She ended up second in the Ultimate Big Brother.

In 2017, Nikki Grahame appeared on Channel Five's In Therapy and talked about her family and how she first became ill when she was just 8 years old.

In 2020, still friends with Imogen Thomas, and 14 years on from his first Big Brother appearance Nikki Grahame said it turned out to be greatest experience of her life.

Having recently suffered with eating disorders, in April 2021 Nikki Grahame died aged 38.

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