Nicki Grant

Nicolette "Nicki" Grant is one of the protagonists of the HBO show Big Love. She is the second and legal wife of the show's central character, Bill Henrickson, and the mother of three children. She is the daughter of Roman Grant, the prophet of Juniper Creek.

Life Pre-Show
Nicolette "Nicki" Eugenia Grant was born on the Juniper Creek compound to Roman Grant and his sixth wife, Adaleen Hallstrom-Grant. She is Roman's eighth daughter, and has a total of 18 brothers and 12 sisters, including two full siblings, Albert "Alby" Grant and Evie.

As the daughter of the prophet, Nicki grew up with more comfort and privilege than many other compound children would have experienced. Despite this, she received no formal education growing up, which was standard for girls on the compound.

At the age of fifteen, Nicki was married to an older man named J.J. Walker. Unknown to her, she had been listed in her father's "Joy Book", a listing of all the young virginal women deemed old enough for marriage. She did not want to be married to him, and often told his sister and her friend Wanda that she "hated" him and he "made her skin crawl". Soon after, she gave birth to a daughter, Cara Lynn. After much begging, Roman allows Nicki to be unsealed from J.J., but requires her to leave her young daughter behind.

Some time after that, she was taken in by Bill Henrickson, grandson of the former prophet Orville Henrickson, who had been thrown out at her father's urging as a young boy. Nicki is taken in to help take care of Bill's wife, Barb, who had uterine cancer, and their three young children. Bill essentially purchased Nicki, making a deal with her father to take her as a wife in exchange for financial help while opening his hardware store Henrickson's Home Plus. The deal had been made with the thought that Barb would die and the children would need a mother, but when Barb recovers Bill decides to return to polygamy and take Nicki as his second wife. As a strong believer in the principle of plural marriage, Nicki agrees.

Bill and Nicki have two sons, Wayne and Raymond. After the birth of Wayne, Nicki panicked to Barb, saying that she knew they only married her because they needed someone to have the children. Barb helped assure her that they loved her and would not force her to have a child against her will. Despite this, some time after Raymond's birth Nicki secretly began taking birth control pills, not wanting more children to get in the way of her relationship with Bill. Around this time, the family hired Margene Heffman, a young employee of Henrickson's Home Plus, to help babysit. Bill wound up taking Margene as his third wife, and the two quickly had two children: Aaron and Lester.

Although the family had been living all together in one big house, after the birth of Margene's second son they purchased three houses, one for each wife, with a shared backyard.