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Sad news about Nikki Grahame cw: eating disorders

Started by Chedney Honks, April 11, 2021, 07:22:55 AM

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Chedney Honks

One of the most famous and beloved Big Brother contestants, and one of the most popular reality TV stars ever in the UK, Nikki Grahame, has died from anorexia at 38.

She initially seemed quite annoying and petulant on BB but she was also very endearing and very funny, and she quickly won over a lot of people. I didn't really watch BB that series but I remember her. Only recently, my wife told me that there had been some successful fundraising to get her some medical and psychological support for her difficulties, so she clearly still had many people who thought fondly of her after all this time. I saw her on something a while ago and she clearly wasn't well. This isn't unexpected but it's very sad.

Anyone got any favourite Nikki moments?


Dr Rock

That's very sad, she made me laugh quite often. RIP.


Shoulders?-Stomach!

QuoteAnyone got any favourite Nikki moments?

That epochal Hi-NRG record she co-produced.

Sorry, have no idea who this person is but RIP, sounds fucking awful tbh





Tokyo van Ramming

I used a search engine to find out just who this person was, and wasn't surprised when I learned everything I wanted to.

Chedney Honks

They're making a joke because that was something she 'famously' said on Big Brother, rather than demonstrating that they're incapable of reading the opening sentence.

Tokyo van Ramming

I did wonder. Thank you Honky, and well done everyone.

Jockice

Also sympathies to all the later contestants who tried so hard to be her by making loud arm-waving statements in the diary room. And who won't be remembered by anyone apart from their closest relations when they die.

Zetetic

Quote from: Chedney Honks on April 11, 2021, 07:22:55 AM
fundraising to get her some medical and psychological support for her [illness]
Absolutely horrifying to read of this in the UK. No one should need to "fundraise" for healthcare.

Tony Tony Tony

WHO WAS SHE?

Like Chedders above even though I wasn't a big BB fan I was aware of her antics. Always thought good luck to her as she made a little talent go a long way.

Think it says something about the nature of 'fame' and the pressures celebs of whatever hue are put under, or more precisely put themselves under in exchange for their fifteen minutes.

JaDanketies

I was on BBLB 12 years ago and Nikki Grahame was in the Green Room. She looked tiny. She was telling recent evictee Kris (?) how he could have a media career afterwards and giving him advice about how to play his hand. Obviously Kris was very interested in what Nikki had to say and she was being very helpful. But the idea that Kris could've had a career comparable to Nikki was ridiculous. She was TV gold.

TrenterPercenter

Very sad and something close to my heart having worked at one of the countries main Eating Disorder services for a time.  They are still very poorly understood yet high profile incidences like this show how devastating mental health can be when dysfunction arises between our minds and bodies.

I once did a month of restriction for a bit of personal understanding (supervised and monitored by the nurses at the clinic and not for anyone to try themselves without advice of a medical team); it worked something akin to a keto diet removing all glucose from my body in about 2 weeks (you then switch to burning ketones than glucose).  This has a profound impact on your functioning and emotions (you realise the role that sugar plays in and how we "swing" emotionally around these spikes in blood glucose); In the main it's a bit like being emotionally sedated (yet with heightened sensitivities to smaller amounts of glucose or often the thought of) so you can see how re-feeding and the thought of food can be terrifying for individuals.  I say this as most people get that eatings disorder often start with a desire to be slim or lose weight (yet even this is better explained by the concept of embodiment[nb]if anyone is interested I can never recommend Megan Warins book "Abject Relations" enough who explains the roles of bodies and the self[/nb]) but under appreciate that at some point the body takes over and undernutrition distorts functioning and locks in behaviours (so there are very much phases).

Needless to say that getting help early is key to saving lives yet our youth mental services are sadly so underfunded.

TrenterPercenter

Quote from: Zetetic on April 11, 2021, 08:45:44 AM
Absolutely horrifying to read of this in the UK. No one should need to "fundraise" for healthcare.

When I first started work at the clinic in 2015; I was taken on a tour; like other hospitals you have inpatient (including ICU); day patients (for patients (and parents in the good ones) on managed rehab) and Outpatients.  We had 10 inpatient beds; this is one of the biggest in the country (certainly outside London) effectively serving a population of 5 million people; absolutely shocking; most ED specialist care in England is carried out by private providers.



wooders1978

Really sad to hear this - starved herself to death basically, bloody hell, poor girl.
One of my friends was very anorexic in her 20s, to the point we were all very worried about her, then she adopted a kid and that sorted her head right out - dunno why I'm mentioning this, however, RIP Nikki

Icehaven

Bloody hell, poor woman. I think the BB she was on was pretty much the last time I watched it but other than Pete (who she supposedly had a thing with) she's the only memorable contestant. When she was evicted either the first or second time and Davina McCall was trying to interview her she was just sitting there looking shell shocked and trying to gauge if the crowd loved her or hated her, and it was pretty obvious she wasn't dealing with the BB process very well at all. You'd hope TV is a bit more aware of it's duty of care now but fuck knows.

bomb_dog

The Princess Nikki series where she took on jobs, pretty much refusing to do any of them whilst reacting with disgust, asking really stupid questions and sobbing occasionally is worth seeing as you veer between pity and incredulity that the show was considered to be a good idea in the first place.

Davina McCall tweeting her sympathies rather than her apologies.

ajsmith2

Yeah as a non watcher I can confirm that that Big Brother (summer 2006, BB7) was the last non-celebrity one that had a major cultural impact and felt like a nationally shared moment in the extent that you were aware of Nikki and Pete etc through the sheet weight of media coverage osmosis. The later non celeb series just seemed kind of past it and very much not 'Where It's At'. 2006 was the last summer of glory for the show in its original incarnation.

Norton Canes

Remember her from BB, probably one of the last years I watched the show. On hearing she'd died I spent a couple of minutes reflecting on the hugely awful circumstances of her life and of her passing. Two minutes more than I'll ever give to thinking about the repugnant ghoul whose demise on Friday was supposed to have united the nation in an outpouring of grief.

Kankurette

I saw some of those GoFundMe photos. The poor thing looked like a Holocaust victim. Apparently as a kid, she had to be heavily sedated so feeding tubes could be put in and she'd just rip them out.

My mum was anorexic so it's a bit touchy. I'm sadder about Nikki than Phil because anorexia is so cruel, and closing the gyms just made it worse cos she wouldn't eat if she couldn't exercise.

Quote from: Satchmo Distel on April 11, 2021, 09:56:27 AM
Davina McCall tweeting her sympathies rather than her apologies.

Yeah, there'll be oftentimes you see Davina on and she talks about big brother as if she was an innocent bystander, like she's talking about a fight in a pub carpark she witnessed in the noughties.
Just happened to be there, saw it happen. Other witnesses remember her being the ringmaster, poking the poor saps with sticks and selling tickets.

She was just another cog in the whole thing to be fair, but she was more than happy to be paid lots of money to be the smiling, human face of that godless machine.

Can't help but feel a bit culpable myself for being a viewer.
I mean, I don't know, I'm just guessing that intense spotlight, stepping into that emotional whirlwind wasn't the stability she needed in her life.

Really sad news. You got glimpses of a gentle, damaged soul underneath all the bravado.

JaDanketies

#22
Tbf she had anorexia before she went on Big Brother and she seemed to flourish in the limelight. People raised £25k to send her to specialist treatment based off her celebrity. The gym closure in lockdown seems to have a causal link to her untimely death, much more than a TV show she was on 15 years ago. I agree that Endemol exploited vulnerable people but the only relevance I can see here is that we wouldn't be mourning Nikki if Endemol hadn't introduced us to her.

Yeah, it's not black and white, who's to say her getting onto the show didn't save her life back then?
Who can say that it did more harm than good?

Half of the people they let on big brother weren't mentally stable enough to cope with the pressures of the whole thing though.
We all had that niggling at the back of our skulls when we were watching it and chose to ignore that.
The people behind the scenes of the show definitely knew that they were fragile people they were goading and emotionally slapping about.

Glebe


bgmnts

Quote from: Kankurette on April 11, 2021, 11:47:06 AM
My mum was anorexic so it's a bit touchy. I'm sadder about Nikki than Phil because anorexia is so cruel, and closing the gyms just made it worse cos she wouldn't eat if she couldn't exercise.

I'm the other way so I eat like crazy beyond all reason and suffer for it but anorexia is one of the scariest things ever to me. Its so hard to understand because nourishing yourself is such a basic need that is shared by almost all life on earth. Its crazy.

Sebastian Cobb

It's incredibly sad.

I'm quite surprised she was seemingly liked by so many given my memory of her was similar to Chedney's as a bit of an irritating spoiled diva prior to entering the house/getting fame. As much of a victim of the reality show machine of course as they were actively searching for people like that and hectoring them with no real regard for their mental health or wellbeing.

Quote from: ImmaculateClump on April 11, 2021, 12:59:27 PM
Yeah, it's not black and white, who's to say her getting onto the show didn't save her life back then?
Who can say that it did more harm than good?

Half of the people they let on big brother weren't mentally stable enough to cope with the pressures of the whole thing though.
We all had that niggling at the back of our skulls when we were watching it and chose to ignore that.
The people behind the scenes of the show definitely knew that they were fragile people they were goading and emotionally slapping about.

There's been a bit of a backlash from reality TV contestants speaking about poor care and lack of support. But meddling and stoking the fire still occurs from the producers. See the most recent series of The Circle when one of the contestants received death threats.

PaulTMA


checkoutgirl

Was she married to Chad from The Lonely Boys who walked off that show because they were slagging her off?