Gina Krasley, who appeared on the TLC reality show My 600-Lb. Life, died on Sunday, August 1. She was 30.
The TV personality “passed away at home surrounded by her loving family,” according to her obituary. Her cause of death was not given. She is survived by her wife of six years, Elizabeth Krasley, as well as her mother, sister and other relatives. The family requested that donations be made to mental health charities in honor of Gina.
“TLC was deeply saddened by the loss of Gina Krasley, who shared her weight-loss journey on My 600lb Life,” the network tweeted on Friday, August 6. “Our thoughts and prayers are with her family at this difficult time.”
The New Jersey native made her debut on My 600-Lb. Life in a January 2020 episode. “My life’s been hard,” she explained. “The first thing I remember was my older sister, Ali, getting diagnosed with agoraphobia when I was 7 and she was 11. I felt like all of my mom’s attention was on my sister, so I always felt my whole life like I was always, like, pushed under the rug.”
Gina detailed how she turned to food as a source of comfort during her childhood. “I got really jealous of my sister, and I remember what made me forget that pain of being abandoned was eating — and by the time I was 10, I was already over 150 pounds,” she recalled.
The reality star claimed that she also suffered physical and verbal abuse at the hands of her father as a young girl. “My weight started to cause problems for me because I started getting bullied a lot, so that led to me acting out and getting punished a lot, which made things even worse — especially with my dad ‘cause he was the enforcer,” she said. “When I did something wrong and he was upset, my punishments from him could get brutal. He would hit me, pull my hair, but at a young age, I didn’t know that was abuse.”
Gina noted that she was more than 300 pounds when she was 14 as she continued relying on food as a coping mechanism. “I was just trying to constantly eat as much as I could, and that pushed my weight to over 450 by the time I graduated high school,” she revealed. “As I was getting closer to 500, it started to get harder to do things.”
The TLC star admitted at the time that her size had “put a strain” on her marriage.
“At this weight, I am very miserable. I’m 28 and I’m probably over 600 pounds now, and I’m only getting bigger,” she explained. “I’m ruining any chance I have for a future all because I can’t stop eating.”
Gina hoped to lose weight at the time she filmed My 600-Lb. Life because she feared for her health. She told the cameras, “If I don’t do anything now, it’s just gonna get worse and I’m going to die.”
