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TLC’s “My 600-Lb Life” is famed for taking fans of reality television on a rollercoaster of emotion, from pitiful sob stories that have viewers rooting for the participants to obnoxious participants who rile viewers up for refusing to show any effort, while claiming that they are doing everything in their power to turn their lives around. Once in a while, a participant’s story, their efforts to lose weight and turn their lives around, and sad fate will tear fans’ hearts out and leave viewers reeling from sadness, and sometimes, grief over the loss of the participant’s life. One such story is that of Gina Krasley, whose life was cut short by a mysterious illness after working hard to lose over 200lbs, rediscover her passion for dancing, and ease her spouse’s burden of taking care of a bedridden wife. Here is the tragic story of Gina Krasley.
“My 600-Lb Life”
28-year-old Gina Krasley was featured in the fifth episode of the show’s eighth season; her story was heartbreaking right from the start. In her introductory video, Gina revealed that she showered once a month in a painstaking process that involved her sitting on a toilet in a half-bath and using water in a bucket, which her mother or wife would prepare for her. The show’s producers followed up her revelation with some undignified images of Gina on her bed, showing parts of her naked body to demonstrate how morbidly obese she was at the beginning of her journey with Dr. Now. Such images often attract criticism from viewers, who accuse Dr. Now and the show’s producers of half-assed attempts to blur the patients’ private parts in videos.
As Gina shared the story of the genesis of her weight gain, viewers could not help but sympathize with the teenage girl who used food to escape her father’s abuse. Initially, Gina’s mother shielded her from her abusive father, but eventually escaped the abusive marriage, leaving Gina with her father. Unprotected, Gina bore the brunt of the man’s anger and frustrations, taking her down a path of depression and anxiety. Food became her only solace. By the time she received her high school diploma, Gina weighed 450lbs, within a year gained another 50, and steadily put on more. By the time she sought Dr. Now’s help at 28, Gina weighed 600lbs and was tired of her miserable existence. Since she couldn’t walk around much, her routine was basic; she woke up, sat on a couch in the house she shared with her wife, mother, sister, and sister’s fiancé, ate, slept, and did it all over again the following day.
Gina was determined to transform her life. However, like most of Dr. Now’s patients, she struggled to keep up with the prescribed diet and exercise regimen, and argued with the doctor when he called her out for overeating. The whole time, Beth, Gina’s wife, remained by her side. Dr. Now gave Gina several chances to drop enough pounds to qualify for gastric bypass surgery but she failed every time, leaving him with no other choice but to cancel the operation. By the end of her episode and time in Dr. Now’s program, Gina had only lost 50lbs to still weigh 556.
'My 600-lb Life' star Gina Krasley is dead at 30. https://t.co/IyIxYSfh60
— TMZ (@TMZ) August 9, 2021
Family and Marriage
Gina was one of the lucky participants who have family rallying around them through their weight loss journey. Her mother had graciously allowed Gina and her wife to live with her together with Gina’s sister and her fiancé. Similarly, Gina had a gem of a spouse in Beth, who was stuck to Gina’s hip throughout her time on the show. She helped set up water for Gina’s baths, got her food, cleaned up after her, and moved with her to Houston, Texas to support her through the weight loss program. Beth remained supportive even when Gina went back on her word to Dr. Now and ordered food that was not allowed in her diet plan.
The couple met on a dating site a few years before Gina’s appearance on “My 600-Lb Life.” Beth knew she wanted to spend the rest of her life with Gina within months of meeting her, and six months later in 2016, the two women were walking down the aisle and vowing to love each other for eternity. Beth crowned their happy day with a heartfelt message stating that she could not live without Gina and expressing the pride she felt for being her wife. She kept her word, and stayed by Gina’s side until she took her last breath in 2021.
Viral Dance Trend
Like all patients in the show, Gina signed up for the program to improve her life. However, she had a secondary reason; she hoped to lose enough weight to allow her to stand for long consecutive periods to enable her to reclaim her childhood passion for dancing. Although she didn’t lose enough weight in the show to resume dancing, she continued to apply Dr. Now’s advice and dropped more pounds to weigh 300 at the time of her death. Her weight loss inspired her to start dancing again, and she went big. Gina started a TikTok trend dubbed “#dancinghasnosizelimit,” which inspired millions of plus-weight people to give in to their passion for activities that they are usually ridiculed for trying. The trend had millions of people on the app viewing, dueting the video, and appreciating Gina for the empowering message. For a while, Gina became a carefree woman who indulged in the things she liked, without burdening her family and worrying about what people would say. In her moment of empowerment, she felt emboldened enough to go after the company that produces “My 600-Lb Life.”
Krasley Vs. Megalomedia
In 2020, a year after her journey aired on TLC, Gina sued the makers of the show, Megalomedia Inc., its parent company DBA Holdings, and Mansfield Films, a contracting company. She claimed that Dr. Now would put her on a diet while the cameras rolled, but require her to consume copious amounts of food off-screen to push the narrative that she didn’t adhere to his instructions. The outcome of the false narrative, which was created to raise the show’s ratings according to the plaintiff, was her disqualification from the surgery she needed to kick-start her weight loss transformation. Therefore, Gina alleged that the show denied her the healthcare it promised, but instead piled more health problems on her, including emotional distress. Gina further alleged that the show didn’t conduct psychological evaluations or provide access to mental health specialists to the participants. She sought $1 million in damages for the physical and psychological distress she suffered on the show.
In May, three months after Gina filed her lawsuit, the court ruled to consolidate her lawsuit with similar lawsuits that other participants in the show had filed. These alleged that Megalomedia deliberately inflicted psychological distress to increase viewership, and was negligent by failing to train employees on the suicide ideation and depression that could result from extreme diets. Unfortunately, Gina passed away before she could get justice or see the lawsuit through to its conclusion. Had she lived, she and her fellow participants would have been disappointed in April 2022, when the Thirteenth Court of Appeals dismissed all the claims against Megalomedia Inc.
Death
After 30 years of life, most of which was spent in emotional distress from her father’s abuse, her dependency on others for basic functions, and her inability to lose weight to live the life she envisioned for herself and her wife, Gina passed away. Her family announced her death, which occurred on 1 August 2021, in a heartfelt obituary, which revealed that she died peacefully with all her loved ones around her. Prior to her death, Gina revealed that she was battling a condition that had left her immobilized, numbed her fingers, and caused excruciating pain in her legs. She did not identify the cause of the condition but sparked allegations that it was neurological after sharing details of a visit to a neurologist on 29 July 2021. Two days later, she lost her life to the mystery illness, becoming one of the 15 participants who have died after appearing on “My 600-Lb Life.”