Woman who used to self-harm because of her size 30 frame reveals she now loves her body thanks to being in a mixed-weight relationship with her slim husband

Woman who used to self-harm because of her size 30 frame reveals she now loves her body thanks to being in a mixed-weight relationship with her slim husband

A ’super-fat' woman has learned to love her curves, with the help of her husband.

Amalie Jennings, originally from Denmark, moved to Hertfordshire to be with her British husband Sean.

Most people in the couple's lives have been accepting of their 'mixed weight relationship', however they have had to cut contact with Sean's father, although they've not revealed the exact circumstances. 

'I have always been fat since I was two years old. My mum took me to the doctors because I was gaining a lot of weight,' Amalie said. 

'Since as long as I can remember I have been fat. And of course that comes with a lot of bullying, a lot of picking on. My oldest memory of bullying is in Kindergarten, I was around four. And all the kids picked on me for being fat.

'I gained even more weight, which meant I was picked on even more. I started self-harming and I got picked on again. I just had a really horrible self-image, I hated looking at the mirror. 

'I hated wearing or picking out clothes because nothing would fit me as a child - I had to shop in the woman’s department to get things that would fit.

'I could never wear what my friends wore or what’s in fashion at the time because nothing would fit me.'

Amalie first started to recognise that her body shape wasn’t accepted by society when she started reading books.

She said: 'When I was growing up I always loved reading books but there was never people like me. Not even just women, there was never people in them like my size.'

But all of that changed when Amalie met her husband Sean via an online video game in 2008.

She told BTV: 'My husband Sean and I met 11 years ago on a game on the PlayStation. And it was kind of a weird friendship that started, I thought he was an old man just looking for a young woman to talk to but then I learned he is my age.

'And the thing about online relationships you get to know a person in a different way. Of course we had seen pictures of each other but it took a while for us to cam.

'You could see how fat I was in the pictures but he kept talking to me. I was so insecure about myself, I would hide my double chin.

'But he still didn’t care, he just wanted to talk to me. So we became best friends really fast, and it actually took a while before we realised we were in love with each other. I started giving him hints that I liked him but he didn’t pick up on them.'

Amalie would even post poems on her Facebook profile hinting at her love for Sean – but while he would read them and compliment Amalie on her poems he didn’t realise she was writing about him.

Finally she plucked up the courage to tell Sean the extent of her feelings, only to learn her felt the same way too.

She said: 'It was the weirdest feeling because I haven’t had luck with boyfriends before. And finally there’s this guy, 500 miles away who fancies me as much as I fancy him.

Amalie and Sean started dating long distance, visiting each other for nine years, and finally marrying on a beach two years ago.

Sean told BTV: 'I wouldn’t say I am generally attracted to larger women, I am attracted to people that I love really so it just happened.

'I mean, maybe in my head before we met, it wouldn't have been someone as large. But it just happened to be and it is not that I find her any less attractive necessarily.

Amalie added: 'It's never been like a fat fetish thing but you haven't like obsessively said "Oh, I love your fat stomach" and stuff like that.

'The thing with weight differences in relationships is there always will be people who comment, "Why would you be with them? Why would you be with that kind of person?"

'Because there is this image that a fat person has to be with a fat person and a thin person has to be with a thin person. I would like more people to come out and be proud of their partner, be proud of themselves.'

Amalie wants to highlight issues that surround fatphobia in the medical field too.

She said: 'There’s a lot of that phobia in the medical field. And that’s what gets me, I don’t feel safe going to the doctors anymore, because you can go in with a broken arm and you will be told you should lose weight.'

'I am happy in my body and I am happy with who I am and what I look like, and I don’t want to fall into the pressure of having to lose weight to be accepted by everyone else.

'If I was ever to go back and speak to a younger Amalie I would say stop wasting time hating yourself. Yes your body is different but it doesn’t mean that it’s a bad body.

'You will never be able to stop people saying things about you. You will never be able to stop them looking at you, but you can stop letting it affect you. You also need to know that you will find people who love you, who love your body for what it is.'