My 600-lb Life’s Coliesa McMillian dies at 41 after weight loss surgery, troubled life drove her to food
Coliesa McMillian, an obese mother-of-four who featured on the TLC reality series ‘My 600-lb Life’ died at the age of 41 on Monday, September 21. According to a Facebook post reportedly shared by her family, she passed away at 10:23 pm on Monday night. Per the Daily Mail, her death came following 'complications' from her weight loss surgery.
‘My 600-lb Life’, which has been running since 2012, follows a year in the life of morbidly obese individuals in each episode. The subjects of the episode, who weigh at least 600 pounds, are documented as they attempt to reduce their weight to a healthy level.
McMillian, at the time of filming her episode, weighed 643 pounds and had already suffered a heart attack that was made much more severe as a result of her obesity. Doctors were reportedly unable to correct the damage done to her heart because her weight made it impossible to operate. McMillian appeared on the 12th episode of season 8 that aired earlier this year on March 18. She had reportedly reached the weight of 499 pounds by the end of the episode.
“TLC is saddened to learn of the loss of Coliesa McMillian, who shared her story on ‘My 600lb Life'. Our deepest condolences to her family at this difficult time,” TLC Network tweeted on Wednesday.
TLC is saddened to learn of the loss of Coliesa McMillian, who shared her story on My 600lb Life. Our deepest condolences to her family at this difficult time.
— TLC Network (@TLC) September 23, 2020
McMillian’s life was a harsh one. It was supposedly full of abuse and harassment by several people that she encountered from an early age. She lost her mother to cancer when she was three. She was left with an abusive and alcoholic father. Things got better when she was sent into foster care.
Reportedly, she was molested by one of her cousins at an early age. However, when people around her refused to believe her allegations, she turned to food for comfort. Things took a turn for the worse when her father remarried a 16-year-old girl and took McMillian and her brother back, reportedly only to get the welfare cheques. Her relationship with her stepmother was a physically abusive one as well.
Teenage pregnancy and an abusive relationship with a man that she married after dropping out of high school only added to the cavalcade of tragedies in her life. McMillan weighed over 500 pounds by the time she was 25. As per the New York Post, when she was 30, her husband was arrested. It was then that she found the strength to leave him. Following that, she moved in with her family to Louisiana, where she met her fiancé, Melvin. “It was almost like we instantly fell in love, you know, and me and my kids moved in with him, so life got better for awhile,” she said of meeting Melvin on the show.
Alas, that was not to last either. Melvin was killed in a car accident. “That devastated me, but I did what I had to do to get through it, and that was to eat so I didn’t fall apart,” she said.
“I’ve allowed food to waste my life. Just the hunger and the want and the crave. It’s taken over my life, and I’m exhausted. I’m exhausted of this life. Livin’ like this is not livin’, ” she said on the show. “I can feel the weight weighing me down. It’s like my body’s trying to give up. And I can feel it -- but I can’t give up. I have to be here for my kids.”
McMillan was aware of the adverse risks of her obesity. She said, “If I don’t lose this weight I’m going to die. I know I’m going to die. Because I do feel like a ticking time bomb. My heart could give out at any time.”
Her funeral services will be held on Thursday and Friday in Plaquemine, Louisiana. She is survived by several siblings and her four daughters.