But the plans that Paul Mason and Rebecca Mountain had made for their mutual future soon dissolved. (For the backstory, see our previous posts about Paul Mason). Mason got tired of small portion sizes, healthful foods, and no potato chips. He was bored and went back to night eating, which is never good. The couple tried a Paleo diet, against which he rebelled.
Basically, he cheated on his lady — not with other women, but with carbs. Ms. Mountain told journalist Emma Parker:
I came home and there was a big loaf of bread in the refrigerator. We had an agreement that we were not going to tempt each other. I felt he wasn’t taking my feelings into consideration. In the weeks after, he went back to his old habits.
Despite their broken engagement, Mountain and Mason continued as roommates until some point in 2018. A real downward spiral began when another woman offered to take him in, and he moved. He told reporter Adam Aspinall,
I met someone out there and we became friendly, she said she had a spare bedroom and offered me a place rent free so I said, yeah OK.
She started demanding things like money for cigarettes, and she took opioids and demanded my prescription from me. I was trapped.
This is what led to me stealing, she would give me a whole A4 list of stuff and would get me to go in the supermarket and steal it — I did not have any choice — it was like an entrapment situation…
I got arrested and taken to court but I paid the fine, there is no outstanding warrant or anything like that…
Apparently though, the thievery was more extensive than he made it sound, but that belongs in the upcoming Addiction discussion.
Another rupture
In 2019, at age 58, Mason was back up to 500 pounds and planned to return to his homeland. His gastric bypass needed adjustment. At least eight of his stomach staples had been defeated by the brute force of his eating and needed surgical repair. His joints were wrecked from the weight they bore in the times when he could walk, and he needed bilateral knee replacements. He told social media friends that during his five years in the U.S., he had made wrong decisions and earned negative consequences.
Mason called his second roommate a “bad influence” and admitted that through his own fault, he had let his visa expire, and also acknowledged that he needed therapeutic counseling on a regular basis. He wanted to go home, but a lot of his fellow Brits did not want him back. Journalist Terri-Ann Williams wrote,
The former world’s fattest man has denied he is a scrounger as he is set to return to the UK to receive £100,000 of NHS care — as the US won’t pay for his treatment…
Tam Fry, of the National Obesity Forum, said that bypass patients know they have to reduce their food intake and think more carefully about what they eat.
He added: “Paul’s health problems are therefore his fault. The NHS should not be forced to clean up this mess… As far as I’m concerned when he moved to America he forfeited his right to NHS treatment.”
Your responses and feedback are welcome!
Source: “Sex with World’s fattest man Paul Mason ‘great’ says ex — but he cheated on her with bread,” Archive.ph, 06/07/19
Source: “World’s fattest man begs NHS to save his life with £100k weight loss surgery,” Mirror.co.uk, 09/29/19
Source: “Former world’s fattest man — who now weighs 40 stone — denies he is a scrounger,” DailyMail.co.uk, 05/27/19
Image by Nathan Cooprider/CC BY 2.0
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