Supersize Donna Simpson has found a bizarre way to turn her passion for food into money. Hundreds of men pay to watch online as 45st Donna scoffs vast amounts of burgers, pizza, crisps and cakes in an attempt to hit her target weight of 1,000lbs, or 72st.
Since setting up her website last November, Donna, who squeezes into size 40 clothes, has already attracted 260 subscribers and their fees net her an impressive £2,000 a month – which she spends on food.
Donna, who’s 39 and 5ft 4, hopes to become one of the world’s heaviest women by consuming up to 12,000 calories a day. To reach her target, ex-carer Donna, who already suffers from diabetes and high-blood pressure, needs to gain another 27st and predicts it will take her until 2012 at her current weight gain of 7st a year.
“I don’t know why my target is 1,000lbs – it’s just the weight I believe I was born to be,” she says. Donna has been obese since childhood. By nine, she weighed 13st – she was bullied at school and dubbed “Fatty four-eyes.”
"He liked me supersized"
At the age of 24 Donna married Robert Simpson, a chef who encouraged her eating by bringing home leftovers from work to feed her. “He’d come home with steak and desserts,” she recalls. “He liked me supersized.”
Robert – who was already a dad to son Sean, now 18 – and Donna had a child together, Devin, now 12, but divorced shortly after. By then Donna weighed 43st. For the first time ever she went on a diet, urged on by her father who was concerned for her health, and lost 5st in six months.
But she soon lapsed when she met fat-lover Philippe Gouamba, 47, in an online chat room for oversized women in 2006. “When I ate enough for five people on our first date, it really impressed him,” says Donna, from New Jersey, USA. Philippe, who counts watching his girlfriend eat as one of his favourite hobbies, says: “I’ve always been attracted to big women, but Donna is my fantasy. The more she weighs, the sexier she is.”
Extreme health risks
The couple, who plan to marry next year, say that Donna’s size makes their sex life even better. “Philippe goes on top so he can play with my fat belly,” says Donna. Regular gym-goer Philippe, who is 13st and 6ft 4, also gets aroused by helping Donna, who is a bra size 56E, wash her rolls of fat in the shower.
Although doctors had said her 38st frame would make it almost impossible to conceive, Donna fell pregnant within three months of dating Phillipe. But she developed diabetes and high-blood pressure during pregnancy and needed a team of 19 doctors and nurses to get through the high-risk Caesarean birth.
When baby Jacqueline was born weighing 8lbs 14oz in February 2007, Donna became the world’s fattest woman to give birth – the previous largest had weighed 34st. But she admits she struggles to care for her daughter, as she can barely walk 20ft without needing to sit down. “It’s difficult keeping up with Jacqueline, but we’re very closely bonded,” says Donna. “Fortunately, anything I can’t do with her, her dad can, so I don’t feel guilty.”
It was six months after giving birth that Donna resolved to become one of the world’s heaviest women by weighing 1,000lbs. “I decided that if I was healthy enough to have a baby, then my body could cope with an extra 34st,” says Donna. “It will be a great achievement – not many other people have reached that weight.”
And despite initial worries for Donna’s health, Philippe supports his fiancée. He says: “Gaining weight makes
Donna happy and seeing her happy makes me happy.”
"My food costs £400 a week"
But Donna’s ambition proved expensive, so she decided to set up a website after discovering that there were men willing to pay to watch large women eat. “My food costs £400 a week,” says Donna. “In a typical day I’ll eat four burgers and fries, a loaf of bread with peanut butter and jam, four servings of meatloaf and mashed potato, a large pizza, a chocolate cake with ice cream and cream, 12 cupcakes, two cheesecakes and fizzy drinks. And I don’t want Philippe to foot the bill just because I’m too big to go out and work.”
Donna charges £8 a month for access to photos of her body and videos of her feasting and measuring her ever-expanding waistline. She has 260 “fat admirers” from as far away as Japan and Australia and their ages range from 20 to 68. She spends between six and 10 hours a day responding to emails or doing live chats online. And although she admits to getting some sexual requests, these are firmly ignored.
Human resources executive Philippe is supportive of Donna’s venture. He says: “I don’t mind other men looking at her because I’m the only one who touches her.”
Since launching her site, Donna has gained 7st. Incredibly, she doesn’t care that reaching 72st will probably confine her to a wheelchair and could kill her, leaving her daughter – who she feeds a healthy diet – motherless.
“I’m well enough to cope with my target weight,” she says defiantly.
