Rosalie Bradford, who held Guinness records for being the world’s heaviest woman and losing the most weight, has died, according to a media report. She was 63.
Bradford died on November 29 at Lakeland Regional Medical Centre. She weighed 473kg in January 1987, according to the 1994 Guinness Book of Records. She lost 331kg to weigh 141kg in September 1992, according to the record book.
Publicist Stephen Nortier told the Lakeland Ledger newspaper that she was at about 180kg at the time of her death. He said the cause of death would not be known until a medical examiner’s report, but Bradford had spent the past year bedridden with complications from having her lymph nodes severed years ago.
At her largest, Bradfrod was 2,4m wide and took 90 minutes to bathe.
She credited fitness guru and television personality Richard Simmons with helping her lose weight. The two began corresponding after Bradford’s friend wrote Simmons when she tried to commit suicide.
Bradford blamed her lifelong battle with obesity on abandonment, which bred a food addiction. Her website claims her peak weight was more than 540kg.
”I was just like an addict — lie, cheat, steal, whatever to get my drug of choice. And my drug of choice was food,” Bradford said in a 1999 interview with the Ledger. — Sapa-AP