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Niki Taylor
Birth name	Nicole Renee Taylor
Date of birth	March 5, 1975 (1975-03-05) (age 33)
Place of birth	Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States
Height	5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Hair color	Blonde
Eye color	Hazel
Measurements	34.5-25-34.5 (US) 87-64-87 (EU)
Shoe size	9 (US) 40 (EU)
Spouse(s)	Matt Martinez (1994–1996, 2 children, twin sons) Burney Lamar (2006–present)
Official website

Nicole Renee "Niki" Taylor (born March 5, 1975) is an American model.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Early life 1.2 Modeling career 1.3 Health struggles 1.4 First Marriage and children 1.5 Second Marriage 1.6 Business ventures and life today 2 References 3 External links

Biography

Early life

Nicole ("Niki") Renee Taylor was born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Ken and Barbara Taylor, a Broward Sheriff's Deputy and a photographer, respectively. She was raised in Pembroke Pines, Florida and attended Cooper City High School. She has an older sister, Joelle, and had a younger sister, Kristen ("Krissy"), a fellow model, who died of arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia on July 2, 1995, at the age of 17.

Modeling career

When she was 13, she signed with Irene Marie Models in South Florida. There she met photographer Jean Renard, who became her manager. She subsequently won a Fresh Faces contest in New York City and a $500,000 modeling contract.

She began professional modeling at the age of 14. Two years later Niki was a teen millionaire and president of her own company, Niki, Inc.

Niki's first magazine cover was an issue of Seventeen (August 1989) at age 14; and at 15, she graced the cover of Vogue. Her official website, nikitaylor.com and many other articles on Niki, always claim that she is the youngest model to appear on the cover, but the records belong to Brooke Shields, who was 14 when she appeared on the cover in February 1980 and Monika Schnarre, who won Ford's 1986 "Supermodel of the World" contest also at age 14. Monika Schnarre, born May 1971, appeared on the April 1986 issue of American Vogue and went on to be an actress, appearing as Steve Sander's transvestite love interest "Elle" on Beverly Hills 90210. Niki Taylor was therefore the third youngest model to appear on the cover of American Vogue.

Even without that distinction, Niki has over 400 worldwide magazine covers to her credit. In May 1996, she set a record by appearing on the cover of six major women's magazines in the same month: Allure, Vogue, ELLE, Marie Claire, Self, and Shape. They have become known as the "Niki Six."

In 1991, she was named one of People magazine's 50 Most Beautiful People.

In 1992, Taylor became the first spokesmodel under 18 to sign a major contract with CoverGirl and she became a feature in their national advertising campaign. Some of her other ad campaigns have been for Liz Claiborne; Nokia; Ellen Tracy; L'Oréal; GAP, Lee Jeans; and Pantene. Taylor also simultaneously had six enormous billboards in NYC's Times Square, in addition to three yearlong billboards for Liz Claiborne.

She appeared in the 1997, 1998 and 1999 editions of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, as well as on the 1998 cover of its swimsuit calendar.

Outside of modeling, Taylor has been an interviewer for several segments of the international syndicated show, Lifestyles. She has covered events for NBC and guest-hosted MTV's Fashionably Loud. She also appeared in Keith Urban's "Somebody Like You" music video. (They were dating from 2002-2004.)

Taylor is signed to New York Model Management.

Health struggles

On May 2, 2001, Taylor was critically injured in a car accident in Atlanta, Georgia. The driver of the car was attempting to answer his cell phone, lost control of the car and smashed into a utility pole.¹ Taylor was wearing her shoulder belt, but not the lap belt at the time and was not thrown from the vehicle; however, she suffered severe internal injuries, including a collapsed lung and serious liver damage. The accident left her unconscious for six weeks and then bedridden for an additional month. Taylor was treated at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta and had 56 operations, as well as substantial physical therapy. In 2001, she went to rehab to treat an addiction to Vicodin, a prescription painkiller.²

First Marriage and children

Niki flew off to Las Vegas and eloped with Matt Martinez in January 1994. They had been dating only three months. Her parents were not happy that they were not present, so on on July 19, 1994, Niki married Matt again in a more traditional wedding ceremony. That December, they had twin sons, Jake and Hunter.³ Two years later, Taylor and Martinez divorced.^{citation needed}. During a 1997 television interview, Niki told Nancy Collins, on ABC's Primetime Live, that she rushed into marriage at age 18. She said "I didn't know him, and he didn't know me." She further said,

"You have to give a relationship time and only time can tell whether it's going to work. Definitely spend four seasons with somebody that you love so you can see how their different moods are. Um, don't rush into it. You have all the time in the world really. That's what I would say."⁴.

Second Marriage

Nine years later, in October 2006, after only three dates, Niki became engaged to NASCAR driver Burney Lamar.⁵ Their wedding was on December 27, 2006 at the Grande Colonial Hotel in La Jolla, California. Instead of gifts, the couple asked for donations to be sent to Victory Junction Gang Camp, a camp for terminally ill children in North Carolina.⁶

In October 2008 It was announced Niki and Burney were expecting their first child together due in March 2009. The gap between her twins, Jake and Hunter, and this new baby will be 14 years.

Business ventures and life today

In July 2005, Niki Taylor opened a clothing store, Abbie and Jesse's, in Franklin, Tennessee with her manager and friend Lou Taylor (no relation).⁷

In the fall of 2005, Niki launched her first fragrance, "Begin by Niki Taylor." She also founded the Begin Foundation for the Advancement of Women in Business.

On January 29, 2007, Taylor filed a federal lawsuit charging E! Entertainment with slander and emotional distress for its profile Boulevard of Broken Dreams.⁸ She alleges the producers promised to promote her successes but instead misrepresented her as a failure. "The first episode," the Complaint stated, "... is a false portrayal of Ms. Taylor as being continually plagued by ill fortune and tragedy."⁹ The lawsuit indicates the documentary alarmed a cosmetics company with which she was negotiating to start a cosmetics line.¹⁰. Supposedly the lawsuit was thrown out of court.

Supermodel Niki Taylor and male supermodel Tyson Beckford co-hosted the new Bravo series Make Me A Supermodel. It premiered on January 10, 2008.¹¹

She lives with her husband and two sons in a French colonial house on seven acres in Brentwood, Tennessee.¹². Photos of Niki in various wedding dresses, her teenage sons, and Burney can be seen in 2006's Instyle Weddings.

References

• Niki Taylor official site

External links

• Niki Taylor at the Internet Movie Database
• Niki Taylor's profile in the FMD-database
• SI Swimsuit Collection gallery - Niki Taylor