See also Biography Index (N) :: Filmography Index (N) :: Discography Index (N)

Rachele-Beth Grahame[1] (born April 28, 1982)[1] from Watford, Hertfordshire[2] rose to fame in the UK when she was chosen to be a housemate on Big Brother 7 in 2006. A former model and promotions girl, Grahame has become renowned for throwing temper tantrums[3] — behaviour that divided viewer opinion during her time on Big Brother[4] and subsequently led to her being given her own reality television show entitled Princess Nikki.[3]

Grahame spent most of her adolescence in psychiatric hospitals, battling with the eating disorder anorexia nervosa, a condition that left her comatose and near death at the age of 12.[5] The Big Brother production company, Endemol, was criticised for including her in the programme and endangering her fragile mental state in favour of viewing figures.

Nikki Grahame and her older sister Natalie[7] were born to parents Susan and David Grahame.[8] Grahame describes her childhood as the "happiest ever",[5] however a series of upsets followed, when at the age of eight, her parents divorced and her grandfather, whom she was extremely close to, died from cancer.[5] Grahame was raised by her mother, Susan, after her parents` separation.[8] Grahame — who has been described as a "daddy`s girl" — was really hurt by the split.[7] During this time Grahame attended gymnastics classes and began showing early symptoms of the eating disorder anorexia — feeling inadequate and fat in her leotard. She began cutting out food as a means of gaining control and keeping her mother close to her.[5]

[edit] Anorexia nervosa

Grahame`s disorder continued to escalate until her parents had her admitted to the children’s eating disorders unit at the Maudsley psychiatric hospital in London.[5] She was kept in for six weeks and then released, however she continued to starve herself and several months later she was rushed to an emergency unit at Hillingdon Hospital, Greater London, where she was force-fed through a nasal tube.[5] She was then transferred to Collingham Gardens child and family psychiatric unit in West London, where her weight was increased and after eight months she was allowed home.[5] For 18 months Grahame remained at home and attended Northwood secondary school in Hillingdon, West London,[9] before her weight started dropping once again.[5] She was readmitted to Collingham Gardens for six months and then to Great Ormond Street Hospital in London where she was placed on a psychiatric and eating disorders ward.[5]

Grahame refused to accept treatment willingly and has commented: “I was on a mission to starve myself to death...I was obsessed."[5] This culminated in several suicide bids, when at the age of 12, she stole a packet of paracetemol from the hospital`s supplies and swallowed 22 pills. Shortly after, Grahame`s weight dropped so low that she fell into a coma and at one stage doctors predicted that she was minutes from death.[5] Grahame was force-fed via a tube that was stitched inside her stomach, but when she regained consciousness she continuously tried to remove the feeding apparatus and her weight subsequently dropped to 2 stones 9lb (37lbs), which her doctor claimed was the worst case of anorexia he had come across in 32 years.[5]

Grahame was eventually admitted to Rhodes Farm, an eating disorders clinic in Mill Hill, North London, and after six months she began showing signs of improvement. She commented: "I woke up one morning and thought, ‘What are you doing to yourself?’.