shocking secret
The sad truth about the glamorous Wheel Of Fortune star’s struggle with addiction is finally revealed
She was once one of Australia’s most loved and glamorous TV stars, yet Adriana Xenides was barely recognisable, surviving on sickness benefits and living as a recluse before her shock death eight years ago at age 54.
Now, finally, the truth about her terrible private torment has been revealed in a fascinating new biography of superstar Aussie fashion designers George Gross and Harry Who, who dressed the TV star at the height of her fame. Written by accomplished author Rose Fydler, Threads: The Untold Story of Fashion House George Gross & Harry Who details for the first time the true extent of Adriana’s drug addiction, eating disorder, depression and volatile love-life. “She often seemed fragile or upset, sometimes angry,” remembers George, who says he appointed a minder to help “keep her on the rails” when she started to miss appointments. Warning bells sounded as Adriana’s figure melted away. A voluptuous size 10 throughout her modelling career and when George and Harry first started dressing her, she lost so much weight that size 8 samples hung off her gaunt body. “When she dropped below 46kg, nothing fitted or hid the bones of her chest,” says George. “She blamed the clothes, then burst into floods of tears or became aggressive… something was seriously wrong.”
DRUGS & DEPRESSION
When she missed a Monday appointment at the designers’ Adelaide factory, the minder was sent to Adriana’s home – where she was met with a shocking sight.
“She found drugs in the bathroom – uppers and downers – and empty bottles of prescription drugs strewn all over the apartment,” George tells. “Meanwhile, Adriana sat vacantly in the corner, rocking back and forward as she hugged her beloved pet dog.”
That week she secretly checked into a clinic, but she never escaped her addiction. In 1999, after 18 years co-hosting Wheel Of Fortune with Ernie Sigley, John Burgess, Tony Barber and Rob Elliott, Adriana left the show.
George says he never stopped loving the TV star, and felt most of her problems were caused by her “bullying stage mother” Consuelo, who interfered in every aspect of her life, and seemingly “terrified” her daughter.
He despaired as he witnessed Consuelo’s meddling make a mess of Adriana’s complicated love-life, insisting only she knew
what her daughter wanted, even accompanying her on dates and refusing to back off during Adriana’s three marriages and six engagements.
‘Adriana sat in the corner, rocking back and forwards’
The star’s dark secrets almost became public in 1995 when she was struck down by what was said to be a gastro viral infection. In fact, she was suffering severe depression, anorexia and an addiction to the strong prescription painkiller pethidine.
A court appearance for dangerous driving after a serious car crash in 2006 was one of her last public appearances, with a penniless Adriana surviving on welfare – and with just Red, her beloved whippet for company – before her death from a ruptured intestine in June, 2010.
A sad and lonely death for the woman George says “never stopped wanting to be loved”.