When we see someone on a reality show, it is like they become a part of our family or at least our circle of friends. That is why it is so upsetting when one of them passes away.
Many people were feeling grief after a star from My 600-lb Life died at the age of 40. It’s upsetting, and even though we know they are at risk, it still pains us when one of them dies.
The My 600-lb Life reality TV show follows people from the United States who have a problem with extreme obesity. It has helped some of them to drop the weight but it also has made many of them famous.
Although some have been able to drop the weight and continue to inspire us with their weight loss efforts, others struggle with their weight continually. Even though there is a lot of intervention that takes place during the show, it doesn’t guarantee their success.
Typically, the show will use a combination of methods to help them drop the weight. This includes calorie control, dieting, and gastric bypass surgery. It helped some but not everyone.
Over the 13 seasons that My 600-lb Life has been running, we have seen a lot of individuals. In the most recent show from January 2025, surgeon Younan Nowzaradan, therapist Lola Clay, and psychologist Matthew Paradise are on hand to assist.
Since the show began, 18 of the patients who appear have passed away. This includes the most recent death, Latonya Pottain.
Latonya Pottain was only 40 years old when she passed away. The northern Louisiana native died on May 17.
Pottain spoke about how she turned to food to support herself emotionally after she lost her mother. She was very young at the time and her father left, so she was living with her older sister until she turned 15.
She joined the show so she could walk down the aisle when she married her husband, Duane. Unfortunately, her brother died shortly before the show was filmed, and it sidelined her progress.
Pottain updated us in a GoFundMe that she had been bedridden since June 2024. Her weight had increased to 740 pounds.
She wrote: “I worked extremely hard to get it down. My journey with weight struggles has been a long and difficult one. In 2022, I was featured on My 600-lb Life, where I started at 531 pounds and worked hard to get down to 505 pounds.
“However, after the show aired, I experienced overwhelming backlash, which sent me into a deep depression. My mental health suffered, and I became fearful of undergoing weight loss surgery.”
In 2023, she was in an abusive relationship and her father had a cancer diagnosis. She continued: “Unable to take the emotional and physical toll, I returned home to Louisiana. Unfortunately, my health continued to decline, and I developed severe sciatica nerve pain, which caused extreme stomach cramps.
“I was prescribed fentanyl, but my body rejected the medication, leading me to begin therapy. Now, I am completely bedridden and unable to get to the hospital because EMTs say transporting me would be a fire hazard due to my weight.”
She did not receive the help necessary and died earlier this month. She is now the 18th person to have died since the show began. It is thought that she passed away from congestive heart failure and it is listed as a natural death.