Niki Taylor

Nicole Renee Taylor was born in Fort Lauderdale, FL. She started modeling in her early teens, and found herself on the cover of Seventeen magazine when she was just 14. By 15, the blonde-haired, beauty-marked Taylor landed a plum modeling contract with cosmetics giant L'Oreal - a feat no other model had accomplished at such a young age. In 1995, Taylor was ranked sixth in a 1995 Forbes magazine survey of the world's top models, with an estimated 1994 earnings of $2.4 million. The fresh-faced beauty - who was by now becoming a new generation's Christie Brinkley - fronted lucrative campaigns for Cover Girl cosmetics when she was only 17, and was widely believed to be the youngest model to have graced the cover of Vogue. Such was her popularity among both the industry that gave rise to her and the readers who could not get enough of her mega-watt smile that Taylor appeared on the cover of no less than six top U.S. magazines in one month - May 1996 - which gave rise to the term "Niki Six." Taylor's modeling career was, undoubtedly, red-hot. Aside from appearing in numerous high-profile print ads, Taylor also starred alongside fellow supermodels Cindy Crawford, Helena Christensen and Naomi Campbell in the documentary "Unzipped" (1995), a behind-the-scenes look of the days leading up to designer Isaac Mizrahi's fall collection fashion show.While Taylor had an enviable career, she also endured personal struggles that would have laid waste to lesser individuals. In 1995, Taylor found her younger sister, Krissy Taylor, dead from an asthma attack in their home near Fort Lauderdale. Also a model, the younger Taylor was only 17 and in awe of her older sister. To cope with the pain of losing not only her look-a-like sibling but her best friend as well, Taylor turned to prescription drugs to numb the pain. A year later, Taylor's first marriage to Arena football player, Matt Martinez, fell apart. The divorce reportedly started Taylor's prescription drug use again. Then, on May 2, 2001, Taylor almost lost her life following a car crash in Atlanta, GA. According to police reports, the accident happened when her then-boyfriend reached down to answer his cell phone and lost control of the car and hit a utility pole. Taylor, who was wearing her seatbelt at the time, suffered severe internal injuries including a collapsed lung and liver damage. She was reportedly unconscious for six weeks, and underwent more than 40 operations and intensive physical therapy.After her remarkable recovery, Taylor rarely modeled again; choosing instead to focus on her twin boys, Jake and Hunter, that she had had with Martinez, as well as on numerous fashion-related ventures. In 2002, she appeared in country music singer Keith Urban's "Somebody Like You" music video; she and Urban dated until 2004. In 2005, she launched a fragrance line, "Begin by Niki Taylor," and opened a clothing store, Abbie and Jesse's (named after her dogs) in Franklin, TN. Taylor co-hosted the first season of Bravo's reality competition series "Make Me a Supermodel" (2008-10) alongside fellow model Tyson Beckford. She left before the show's second season began because she was expecting a baby with her second husband, NASCAR driver Burney Lamar. But Taylor was never far away from the limelight for too long. She competed on the 2010 season of the reality hit show "Celebrity Apprentice" (NBC, 2004-), in which she faced off against such stars as singer Dionne Warwick and former teen idol David Cassidy to win money for their respective charities.