World's fattest man Manuel Uribe weds girlfriend
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/worl...icle5020806.eceIt was a Big Fat Mexican Wedding with a low-calorie reception when the world’s fattest man married his long-term girlfriend in Mexico on Sunday.
Manuel Uribe, 43, wed hairdresser Claudia Solis, fulfilling a birthday wish for the Mexican man who has shed an enormous 570 pounds (230 kg) from his former weight of 94 stone (590kg) over the past 12 months.
Despite his impressive weight loss, Mr Uribe, named the 'World’s Fattest Man' by the Guinness Book of Records in 2007, remains confined to his bed which he has not been able to leave in the past four years.
But that didn’t stop him making the 30-minute trip to the civil ceremony at a makeshift altar in a local town hall in his home town of Monterrey.
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The former car parts dealer was transported to the wedding on his specially-reinforced four-poster bed, draped with cream and gold and adorned in bright sunflowers, on the back of a truck.
Dressed in a white satin shirt and with a sheet covering his legs, Mr Uribe smiled broadly, gave the thumbs up and waved to passers-by as the truck headed towards the wedding.
His bride, wearing in a strapless ivory satin dress, a tiara and holding a bouquet of fresh lilies, looked equally as excited, smiling for the swarm of international photographers.
As the couple was declared husband and wife, Mr Ubide broke into tears.
Mr Uribe said later: "I have a wife and will form a new family and live a happy life."
For the traditional first dance as newlyweds, the newlyweds held hands and swayed to a romantic ballad.
Mr Uribe's doctors were among the 400 guests at the wedding reception which had a "low-calorie banquet" with meat, creamed mushrooms and buttered vegetables.
Mr Uribe, whose goal weight is 120kg (18st), said previously he might have a bite of wedding cake for the cameras, but would not have any more as his strict diet would not allow it.
His mother, Orquedia Garza, confirmed the groom had steered clear of the five-tier wedding cake at the reception, during which a popular local norteno band played accordion-heavy tunes.
"He didn't break his diet," she told AP. "His doctors are here and they are watching him very closely."
After announcing his engagement earlier this month, Mr Uribe said it was his birthday wish this year to marry Ms Solis.
"We are in love, and this year my birthday wish is to be able to stand when we get married,” he said.
“We are a couple. We have sex, and in the eyes of God we are already married."
Ms Solis has said of her new husband: "I bathe him every day, and we get along very well".
The ceremony was televised by the Discovery Channel as part of a program about the couple named after the 2002 US comedy My Big Fat Greek Wedding. It will be the second TV show featuring Mr Uribe, after World's Heaviest Man, which detailed his battles to lose weight.
Mr Uribe has been suffering from morbid obesity since 1992. He was gripped by suicidal thoughts until he undertook a drastic diet after a worldwide appeal to help him lose weight.
He refused gastric-band surgery and instead undertook the strict diet, with the help of Ms Solis and Mexican nutritionists working with the Zone diet.
He has since asked the Guinness Book of Records to award him the title of ‘World’s Greatest Slimmer’.
Mr Uribe has also set up a foundation to help educate Mexican people about nutrition and to combat obesity problems.
The Uribes met four years ago at the death-bed of a mutual friend of who weighed 551 pounds (250kg). Another of Mr Uribe’s friends, Mexican Jose Luis Garza, 47, who weighed 992lb (450kg), died earlier this month.
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19 Nov 2008 - 18:56
