Meet the woman who proposed to the world's (former) fattest man.

“I wanted Paul to be able to experience that love publicly — to show people that different-looking people can fall in love.”

Rebecca Mountain, 42 and Paul Mason, 54, first met on the internet. Rebecca had been following his story for a while. She had seen a documentary on him struggling with his weight – at that point he weighed 444 kilos – and a couple of years later read that he lost about 295 kilos after surgery. After mentioning that he couldn’t afford the surgery he needed to get rid of his excess skin, Rebecca reached out to Paul thinking maybe he could help him with fundraising.

Talking to Cosmopolitan in the US, she said she never expected things to turn romantic. “We emailed back and forth for about two weeks before Paul suggested talking on Skype. Face-to-face, or rather, screen-to-screen, we immediately clicked emotionally. We developed a level of comfort instantly, talking about our goals and common interests, and things quickly got romantic.”

Soon, Rebecca flew from her home in the US to meet Paul in his native England, and she told Cosmo that just made things clear for both of them: “While a lot of people pick their partners based on looks and hope they like that person when the initial physical attraction wears off, we did things the opposite way, and our emotional attraction led to a physical attraction. I think the most fulfilling long-term relationships have this kind of strong foundation.”

Paul flew to the US to stay with Rebecca for a few months, and in a joint appearance on The View, she decided to propose.

“…I wanted Paul to be able to experience that love publicly,” Rebecca said. “To show people that different-looking people can fall in love. So I decided to propose to Paul on The View. He didn’t know I was going to do it there and then — but he said yes.”

Rebecca then set about supporting Paul during his skin-removal surgeries, as the amount of weight he had lost meant he had over 100 kilos of excess skin.

Paul went from this:

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To this:

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And he proudly displays the results of skin surgery on his public Facebook page:

Rebecca tells Cosmo US that Paul is a lot more mobile now, and their relationship has never been stronger:

“I don’t think looks matter. I’m sexually attracted to Paul. We’re living together and engaged, and we share intimacy despite Paul’s physical limitations. I don’t worry whether I’ll be attracted to Paul after his surgeries, or whether his looking better will affect my self-esteem. (I’ve never really struggled with self-esteem issues, and Paul hasn’t changed that. We met as adults, and we’re more secure in ourselves and less self-conscious in general.)”

Well said.

We look forward to the wedding between these two adorable love-birds.