The mother of late Big Brother star Nikki Grahame said her daughter had a BMI of 10 and was so “pitiful” she could not walk up the stairs when she died at the age of 38 while battling an eating disorder. The TV personality appeared on the seventh series of the reality show in 2006, and despite finishing fifth became one of its most recognisable contestants.
She later spoke publicly about how she developed anorexia while still a child and struggled with the condition throughout her life, spending time in hospital on a number of occasions. Speaking ahead of the first anniversary of her death on April 9, her mother Sue Grahame told BBC Breakfast that her daughter started to show signs of an eating disorder from the age of eight, when she refused to sit down in a restaurant on Mother’s Day.
Mrs Grahame said: “That was the start. And from there, I just noticed that she became very withdrawn and was just going into a decline. Little did I know it was going to be a 32-year journey.”
