THE game show hostess Adriana Xenides was a rare jewel in television who would be remembered for her generosity towards others, her former colleague John Burgess said last night.
''Adriana had a heart of gold and she couldn't do enough for people,'' Burgess said. ''She always put other people ahead of herself. We've lost a good person.''
Xenides, 54, the co-host of the long-running game show Wheel of Fortune for 18 years, was admitted to Liverpool Hospital last week with a stomach illness. She died just before 5 o'clock yesterday from a ruptured intestine. Her family were at her bedside and Burgess had visited her earlier in the day and spent some time talking to her. ''I'm pleased she went peacefully,'' he said.
Burgess said Xenides had struggled since leaving the limelight in 1999. She appeared occasionally on the panel show Beauty and the Beast and on Celebrity Big Brother in 2002.
He described her as a true professional. ''We worked for 12 years together on Wheel of Fortune and never had a blue, never had an argument, in all that time, which is remarkable for the business we're in.''
In the mid-1990s, at the height of her fame, Xenides endured a very public battle with depression and suffered a physical breakdown. At that time she acknowledged the loyalty and friendship of Burgess. ''People equated us to an old married couple because that's how we behaved, I guess,'' she said.
When she returned to the then top-rating TV game show after a seven-month break, she said: ''A difficult chapter has closed, and tomorrow is a blank page.''
Xenides was born in Buenos Aires in 1956 and emigrated to Australia in her teens, spending most of her working life in Adelaide, where Wheel of Fortune was filmed.
During her record 18-year run on the show, she worked with four hosts, Ernie Sigley, John Burgess, Tony Barber and Rob Elliott.
Her former publicist and friend for more than two decades, Michael Shephard, yesterday acknowledged a side of Xenides, which was rarely seen by the public. ''People knew her as a model and a game show hostess, but she was well educated, came from a great family and spoke five languages,'' he said. ''She had such an amazing insight into life and the world, and a great passion for animals.''
She was also a great humanitarian, he said. ''She didn't get to show that side of herself because of the nature of the beast.''
Xenides is survived by several cousins, an aunt in Adelaide and family in Spain and Argentina. Funeral details have not yet been announced.
Subject: adriana xenides dies aged 54 
June 8th 2010, 5:00 am
