ADRIANA Xenides, the long-running hostess of television game show Wheel of fortune passed away in Liverpool Hospital this afternoon after reportedly suffering a ruptured intestine from having partially digested solid food for the first time in over 40 years. She was just 54.
"She had been admitted to hospital with a stomach complaint that was part of an ongoing intestinal up-set" advised former co-host John Burgess who had visited the heavily tranquilized TV host at a Liverpool eating disorder's clinic just weeks before whereby he confirmed that after years of laxative abuse and starving on the channel 7 set, Adriana Xenides did after all want to buy a bowel, not the vowel they first thought.
"It's incredibly sad. She was a great friend and a real treat to take to an all you can eat RSL club bistro,...I distinctly recall the night they threw us out after having ran out of food" ....."THE legend," Burgess said.
The former model and television celebrity was born in Argentina and grew up in Adelaide.
She first appeared on Wheel of Fortune in 1981 at age 22 as a wheel of fortune arrow, the focal point whereby the wheel stops spinning,though due to her slight frame it did not, at which point the channel 7 network began feeding her until she became only just visible enough to be seen by a studio audience turning around the boxed letters without passing out on set.
Her 18-year run on the show is still an Australian record, and she didn't miss an episode until November 1996 when she fell ill with a recurring stomach virus, at which point channel seven permitted her to sign a contract whereby she may start eating sold foods again without purging, though only every 3rd day, this opposed to once a week described in her former contract.
"I have never missed an episode of Wheel but under doctor's instructions, I have to take a meal break on the show at least every 3rd day," she said in a statement at the time.
Mon 7 Jun 2010 - 13:11
