Wheel of Fortune hostess Adriana Xenides dies at 54

GAME show hostess Adriana Xenides was a rare jewel in television who will 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, co-host of the long-running game show Wheel of Fortune for 18 years, was admitted to Liverpool Hospital in Sydney last week with stomach pain.
She died just before 5pm yesterday from a ruptured intestine. Her family were at her bedside. Burgess had visited her earlier in the day. ''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 was on Celebrity Big Brother in 2002.
''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,'' Burgess said.
In the mid-1990s, at the height of her fame, Xenides endured a very public battle with depression and had a physical breakdown. When she returned to the set of Wheel of Fortune - then the top-rating game show on TV - after a seven-month break, she said: ''A difficult chapter has closed, and tomorrow is a blank page.''
Xenides was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and emigrated to Adelaide in her teens, spending most of her working life in the South Australian capital, where Wheel of Fortune was filmed.
Her publicist and friend for more than two decades Michael Shephard yesterday acknowledged a side of Xenides which was rarely seen by the public.
''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.''
Funeral details have not yet been announced.