‘My 600-lb Life’: Wives Who Ditched Their Husbands After Their Weight Loss

If you thought that after participants miraculously shed hundreds of pounds on TLC‘s My 600-lb Life that their married lives would dramatically improve, you’d be wrong. In fact, breakups and divorce are so common after a significant weight loss that some weight loss patients call it “bariatric divorce.”

One study even said that most couples separate within two years after the severe weight loss surgery takes place — as demonstrated by many past cast members on the show. After slimming down, many started to see strains on their marriages, leading many to divorce.

See which participants of My 600-lb Life split from their partners and why.

Christina Phillips

When she first appeared on season 2 of the show, Christina weighed 700 pounds — and ended up dropping a whopping 400. Her success story ended in heartbreak, as the weight loss caused a strain on her relationship with her husband, Zach, who had a hard time adjusting to the “new her.”

“It became clear that me becoming independent was not going to work for him,” she said on the show.

During a “Where Are They Now?” special, she revealed that getting a divorce was the best thing for her. “I was in a really abusive relationship. And that definitely, I think, has had a negative impact on me.”

Tanisha Cleveland

In the midst of her two-year weight loss journey, Tanisha’s husband Troy walked out on her, causing her to almost abandon her new diet plan altogether.

“Troy and I started fighting cause I felt like he wasn’t being supportive of me trying to turn my life around for the better,” she explained on the show. “So he decided to leave. It was definitely painful. I’m thinking, ‘This is my soulmate. This is the person I’m going to spend the rest of my life with.’ And I didn’t know if I was going to make it for a while.”

Tanisha managed to push through the tough times and has lost 119 pounds.

Zsalynn Whitworth

While some My 600-lb Life participants’ significant others are super supportive of their partner’s weight loss journey, that wasn’t the case for Zsalynn Whitworth. On the show, her husband admitted to liking “bigger women” and was worried that Zsalynn was going to transform into someone he didn’t like. He even tried to sabotage her goals by refusing to buy her a salad once.

“I’m not buying you a salad,” he told her at the time. “If you want to eat grass, you can go in the garden and graze.”

During her “Where Are They Now?” special, Zsalynn announced they had gotten a divorce. “[My husband] hasn’t found much good in my changes,” she said. “It’s time for us to admit it’s over.”

Laura Perez

Although Laura Perez (who know goes by Angelika Laura) fulfilled her goal of dropping 300 pounds, she also lost her marriage. On the show, she admitted that her husband Joey became “jealous” of her weight loss, with Joey explains that he felt “pushed out” by her newfound independence after being her caregiver for years.

“The better I get, the worse my relationship is getting,” Laura said at the time. “[Joey] acts a little different, like ‘Oh, you don’t need me.’ I had told him, ‘I need you to support me not take care of me.’”

While the couple seemed optimistic the show that they’d make it work, Laura’s Facebook tells a different story, with her captioning a photo with another man “The luv (sic) of my life.”

Lupe Samano

Although Lupe Samano’s husband, Gilbert Donovan, took care of her while she was bedridden for 10 years, fans weren’t happy with the way he treated Lupe. In one instance, fans were shocked to see that he forced her to have sex right after she had skin removal surgery — which caused her stitches to open and become infected.

Although Lupe initially defended her husband, she decided to leave when she found out he was cheating on her during her weight loss journey.

“I’m done with his cheating, his drinking and his abuse,” she said at the time. “I’ve seen that as I lose weight more, it’s getting worse. His insecurities, his jealousy. That’s not a life for me.”

Samano went on to lose 300 pounds and date a new man, according to her Facebook.

Amber Rachdi

During her weight loss journey in which she astonishingly lost more than 400 pounds, Amber Rachdi lived with her parents and boyfriend, Rowdy, who many called an enabler for driving her to the grocery store for more food.

“I do feel guilty,” Rowdy said on the show about giving into Amber’s eating addiction. “But what else do you do when you love someone?”

Amber later explained that Rowdy “preferred bigger women” so he didn’t mind the weight gain. Following her weight loss, however, the two split up. She got engaged to a new man in 2016 and the pair have since married — but Amber claims there’s no bad blood between her and Rowdy.

“In defense of Rowdy, my ex who was on the show: who do y’all think is taking pictures of me at the gym?” she wrote on Twitter. “He IS a good, supportive friend.”

June McCamey

June McCamey initially began her more than 200-pound weight loss journey to save her relationship with partner Sadi Gregory.

“When we first got together, I was much more mobile. Now I feel like she is taking care of me like I’m a kid,” June said on the show.

But after slimming down, the pair split up, with June saying on the show that she was simply more “independent.”