Tammy Slaton has reached yet another amazing turning point in her metamorphosis.
Alongside her sister Amy, the 1000-lb Sisters star rose to stardom in 2020, but her true tale is one of tenacity, health struggles, and self-reinvention.
Slaton, who battled obesity and food addiction, made headlines in recent months when she lost over 300 pounds, walked alone, and appeared for the first time without her oxygen tube.
The 38-year-old acknowledged in a recent interview with PEOPLE that on January 18, Dr. J. Peter Rubin of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Centre performed an eight-hour skin removal procedure on her.
Over 15 pounds of extra skin were removed from her arms, lower abdomen, and chin during the intricate process.
“After six years and losing over 500 pounds, I was finally approved for surgery,” she said. “I was just overwhelmed with excitement. I worked really hard for this, and now it’s here.”
“The night before my surgery, I was, like, seriously freaking terrified,” she added. “I was even more nervous about having skin removal surgery than I was for the [sleeve gastrectomy] surgery because they’re actually cutting the whole belly!”
The reality show featured footage of Slaton’s surgery, and her siblings were clearly moved when they first witnessed her miraculous transformation.
“It feels so weird not having the b**l sack hanging off my face and my bat wings are gone too,” she joked, per Daily Mail. “I look down and there is nothing there in my lap now… It’s going to take a little while for me to get used to seeing myself like this.”
She has undergone a profound emotional metamorphosis in addition to a physical one. During the show, she reflected on achieving her ideal weight after losing 717 pounds to 534 pounds.
“When I got on the scale and I saw the scale was at 534.7, I kinda stopped breathing for a second. I’m like 14 lbs under my goal weight. From over 700, that’s a huge drop. I’m feeling thrilled, proud, excited – just all the emotions. I proved everybody wrong… I finally got mine! My told-you-so moment,” she said per PEOPLE.
Slaton has experienced heartbreak along the way. Seven months after they were married in November 2022, she lost her husband, 40-year-old Caleb Willingham, whom she had met while recovering.
During a previous interview, she discussed the heartbreaking experience of learning about her husband’s death while he was at a rehabilitation centre in Ohio and she was at home in Kentucky.
“I got a text message from his friend up there, and the text said, ‘Caleb’s not doing good. They’re in there working on him.’ 20 minutes later, he texted me back and said he was gone,” she recalled. “I was sitting in the fetal position.”
Slaton now wears a ring and necklace with Caleb’s ashes, bringing her comfort during difficult days. “He’s going to live on now forever because his memory is encapsulated,” she said.
The reality TV personality has now disclosed that she has fallen in love once more, this time with a woman, in Season 7 of 1000-lb Sisters.
“There’s something I haven’t told my family. Amy’s not the only one that’s been seeing somebody new. So have I,” she said in a confessional. “The person I’m dating is a woman. So I haven’t told my family because my family’s gonna have something to say about it. I think my family probably has more opinions than the world has a***oles because they be farting so much.”
She revealed that she no longer wants to be with men after coming out as pansexual years ago, and this is her first romance since Caleb’s passing.