Kari Ann Peniche

Kari Ann Peniche Williams (born March 20, 1984) is an American actress and entertainer from Fairview, Oregon.

She has held the Miss Oregon Teen USA and Miss United States Teen titles.

She graduated in 2002, and later attended Portland State University and took classes through UCLA Extension.

Peniche won the Miss Oregon Teen USA 2002 title in November 2001.

She competed in the Miss Teen USA 2002 pageant but did not place.

At the end of her reign she crowned Tami Farrell as the new Miss Oregon Teen USA.

The following year she represented Oregon in the Miss United States Teen pageant, which she won.

She was crowned November 10, 2003, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Peniche was considered an unconventional pageant winner, for her fashion and career choices.

She was later stripped of her Miss United States Teen title after appearing nude in Playboy magazine.

Peniche stated that she did not think there would be any issue, since: she claimed that nothing in her beauty pageant contract prohibited her from doing nude modeling; and, her Playboy issue was not published for sale until after her reign had ended.

Peniche went on to host Xtreem, a Seattle-based, cable television program featuring local bands and extreme sports; and, the Boom Boom Huck Jam event.

She acted in Small Change, an independent film produced in Seattle, and has appeared in other movies and TV shows.

She also launched a line of bikinis called "Strung Out" at Portland Fashion Week.

She was stripped of the latter title after appearing nude in the November 2004 issue of Playboy.

She has been the subject of several celebrity gossip stories, including a brief engagement to singer Aaron Carter, a quarrel with singer Mindy McCready, and the leak of a controversial home video involving actors Eric Dane and Rebecca Gayheart.

She is also well known to television audiences for her appearances on the first season of Sex Rehab with Dr. Drew, the third season of Celebrity Rehab, and a brief appearance on the second season of Sober House.

Peniche has two younger brothers.

After their parents divorced, the three siblings lived with their mother, who was an extreme perfectionist (especially about schoolwork).

Peniche attended a modeling class at age twelve.

After briefly moving the family to Houston, Texas, Peniche's mother remarried and moved them to a home on Blue Lake in Fairview, Oregon.

At age 16, Peniche won a six-week contract to model in Korea.

She returned for another six-week stint at age 18.

Peniche attended Portland Lutheran High School in Gresham, Oregon, where she was a cheerleader.

In September 2006 Aaron Carter, then 18 years old, proposed to Peniche while they were onstage in Las Vegas, Nevada.

They had known each other five days.

Peniche, who had previously dated his older brother Nick, agreed.

The engagement was broken off six days later.

In a 2008 interview with Steppin' Out magazine, Peniche claimed that she was sexually abused as a minor, teenage model, and beauty queen; also physically abused by a former boyfriend.

On August 17, 2009, a home video was posted on the website Gawker showing Peniche with married actors Eric Dane and Rebecca Gayheart.

All three are naked, though the video does not contain any sex acts.

Though it is unknown how the video was made public, it had been stored on a hard drive that was the subject of a dispute between Peniche and Mindy McCready during their time on Celebrity Rehab.

Starting in November 2009, Peniche appeared as a patient on the VH1 reality television spinoff series, Sex Rehab with Dr. Drew (a documentary about the treatment process for sexual addiction patients [filmed in April 2009] at the Pasadena Recovery Center).

Peniche described herself as having had hundreds of lovers, but being unable to emotionally connect with anyone in any kind of relationship.

Peniche's participation in the treatment program was marred by her aggressive and erratic behavior: verbally abusing the staff and other patients; refusing to participate in group discussions, or obey the clinic's rules; forcefully demanding that the staff fetch her fruit juice and bring it to her bedside; accusing people of laughing at her when they clearly were not; and, compulsively smiling (as a beauty pageant contestant might, in order to maintain a facade of well-being) -- even when discussing her own past traumas and pain.

Dr. Drew Pinsky, the treating physician, became suspicious that she was using illicit substances such as methamphetamine, or had been prior to being admitted.

The PRC's staff psychiatrist diagnosed her as having borderline personality disorder (BPD).

It was indicated that both the substance abuse and BPD had to be treated before any treatment for sexual addiction could begin.

Eventually, Peniche was involuntarily discharged for failing to comply with the program's guidelines.

She refused Pinsky's offer of an alternative program at a nearby psychiatric hospital, and during the process of being evicted from her home, she made suicidal gestures and became abusive toward the show's production staff (e.g., throwing a container of water onto a technician).