Kendra Wilkinson extracted from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia, distributed under the GNU Free Documentation License

Kendra Wilkinson

Birthdate	June 12, 1985 (1985-06-12) (age 24)
Birth location	San Diego, California, U.S.
Birth name	Kendra Leigh Wilkinson
Spouse(s)	Hank Baskett1
Height	5 ft 4 in (1.63 m)
Weight	115 lb (52 kg)
Eye colour	Blue
Hair colour	Blond
Ethnicity	American
Official web site
Kendra Wilkinson at IMDb

Kendra Leigh Baskett² (born June 12, 1985)³, better known by her birth name of Kendra Wilkinson, is an American television personality and glamour model. She is well known for her role on the E! reality-television show The Girls Next Door, on which her life as one of Hugh Hefner's three girlfriends was documented. Although not a Playboy Playmate, she has appeared in three nude pictorials with her Girls Next Door costars and fellow Hefner girlfriends Holly Madison and Bridget Marquardt. Her own reality series, Kendra debuted in June 2009.

Contents 1 Biography 2 Career 3 Personal life 4 References 5 External links

Biography

Kendra Wilkinson was born in San Diego, California, and is of English and Ukrainian descent. She is the elder of two children; her younger brother is Colin. Her mother, Patti, was originally from Cherry Hill, New Jersey, and had been a cheerleader for the Philadelphia Eagles. Her father, Eric, was raised in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, and Ocean City, New Jersey, before moving to San Diego, California, at age 15. He received a degree in Biochemistry from the University of California, San Diego, and went on to found several biotechnology companies, before retiring at the age of 48. Patti and Eric married on November 5, 1983. They divorced on March 25, 1994, when Kendra was nine. Her grandmother Gloria Wilkinson died in December 2004.⁴ Wilkinson grew up in Clairemont, a middle-class community in central San Diego, and attended Clairemont High School, from which she graduated in 2003.⁵ She played softball for six years with the Clairemont Bobby Sox.⁶ When she left high school she began working as a glamour model, and also briefly worked as an office assistant for a dentist.⁷

Career

Wilkinson met Hugh Hefner at his 78th birthday party in April 2004, where she was hired to be one of the "painted girls" (women who are nude except for painted-on accessories). Hefner had apparently seen her picture, shot by photographer Kim Riley, on a fax machine at the Playboy Mansion and wanted to know who she was. Shortly after they met, Hefner asked Wilkinson to be one of his girlfriends, and he moved her into the Playboy Mansion⁸ along with her dogs, Raskal and Martini.⁹

She was featured on the E! reality television series The Girls Next Door, which followed the lives of Hefner's then-girlfriends: Baskett, Holly Madison and Bridget Marquardt. She moved out of the Playboy Mansion in 2009 after meeting her future husband, Hank Baskett, and filmed her own spin-off reality show for E! called Kendra. The first season was about her living on her own and planning her wedding.¹⁰

Wilkinson has made several cameos on different programs such as Las Vegas and Entourage. She also appeared in Akon's music video "Smack That". While on the set of the video, Eminem poured a bottle of water on her head, though the two later reconciled.¹¹ In 2006, she appeared in the Playboy Special Editions Sexy 100. In 2007, she appeared in Nickelback's music video of "Rockstar", along with Madison and Marquardt. They also had a cameo role in the 2006 film Scary Movie 4.¹² Wilkinson also showed her creative side as a rapper on MTV's Celebrity Rap Superstar which debuted on August 30, 2007. She rapped to Ludacris’ "Fantasy", in response to the question asked by the show's host, "Can Kendra move her mouth as fast as she moves her booty?".¹³ She went on to take second place, losing to Shar Jackson.

Wilkinson's stated career goal is to become a massage therapist or sports announcer.¹⁴ In December 2005, she became a regular blogger columnist at the website of the Philadelphia Eagles,¹⁵ a team for which her mother had been a professional cheerleader,¹⁶ and for which her mother use to be a cheerleader for and her husband used to play professionally.

Wilkinson stars in a spinoff of Girls Next Door, titled Kendra, which focuses on her life after leaving the Playboy Mansion and getting engaged to then Philadelphia Eagles receiver Hank Baskett. The Girls Next Door executive producer Kevin Burns serves in the same capacity on the series.¹⁷ Kendra premiered on June 7, 2009, and had record breaking numbers for E! with 2.6 million viewers, and was the highest-rated reality debut for the network since 2002's premiere of The Anna Nicole Show.¹⁸ E! ordered eight episodes. She is currently working on a second season of the show which will premiere sometime in March.

Personal life

On August 13, 2008, the Wall Street Journal reported that she was Olive Garden's "Biggest Celebrity Fan." Wilkinson has described Olive Garden's cuisine as "my soul food." The newspaper emphasized that her repeated enthusiastic public endorsements of the family restaurant were genuine, personal and were not tied to any payment from Olive Garden. In fact, the company was reported as viewing Wilkinson's endorsements with "mixed feelings" which it was reluctant to comment on since the restaurant emphasizes its family-friendly nature.¹⁹

On September 22, 2008, the International Business Times reported that Wilkinson was engaged to then Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver Hank Baskett.²⁰ Wilkinson initially denied this, but she later admitted she was in a relationship with Baskett on October 7, 2008 in an interview with Chelsea Handler on Chelsea Lately.²¹²² On November 6, 2008, E! Online announced Wilkinson and Baskett were engaged, after he proposed the previous Saturday at the Space Needle in Seattle, Washington.²³²⁴

Wilkinson married Baskett on June 27, 2009, at the Playboy Mansion.²⁵ Although it was initially announced that Hugh Hefner would give the bride away, Kendra's brother Colin walked her down the aisle. Wilkinson's family was in attendance, as well as former Girls Next Door stars Holly Madison and Bridget Marquardt.^{26 2728} Us Weekly paid the couple $120,000 for the wedding pictures.²⁹ On the wedding episode of Kendra, Kendra and Hank said that Kendra would be taking Hank's last name.

On June 11, 2009, Wilkinson announced that she and Baskett were expecting their first child together.³⁰ The baby, a boy, was born December 11, 2009 at 12:37 A.M. in Carmel, Indiana by c-section. He weighed 9lb 5oz. ³¹ The boy is named Hank Baskett IV after his father, grandfather and greatgrandfather.³² Kendra's friends hosted a baby shower on Sept. 9, 2009. Wilkinson told E! News that Playboy mogul Hugh Hefner will be the godfather of the baby-on-the-way. "He was like, 'Oh my god!' and then he cried... Hef will be the godfather," Wilkinson said,³³ but she later denied this in an interview in OK magazine.

References

External links

• Official website
• Kendra Wilkinson at the Internet Movie Database

v • d • e The Girls Next Door Holly Madison (2005–2009) • Bridget Marquardt (2005–2009) • Kendra Wilkinson (2005–2009) Hugh Hefner • Kevin Burns • E! Crystal Harris (2009–present) • Karissa Shannon (2009–present) • Kristina Shannon (2009–present) Playboy's Penthouse (1959–1960) • Playboy After Dark (1968–1970) • Kendra (TV series) (2009–present)

Persondata
NAME	Wilkinson, Kendra
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Baskett, Kendra
SHORT DESCRIPTION	model and reality television participant
DATE OF BIRTH	1985-06-12
PLACE OF BIRTH	San Diego, California, United States
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH