7ft 8in ‘gentle giant’ finds love with a woman almost three feet smaller than him
 ‘Everything about Joelison is big’, says the interviewer, adding, ‘except for one thing….his tiny wife.’ And exhale. A 7ft 8in man who was so embarrassed about his height he spent ‘half his life’ hiding away at home, has now found love – with a woman almost three foot smaller than him. 28-year-old Joelison Fernandes da Silva has been described as Brazil’s ‘gentle giant’ and is officially the country’s tallest man, after he developed gigantism as a child. Despite his towering stature, he was bullied as a teen and, after dropping out of school, became a virtually recluse to avoid people’s stares. ‘I saw myself as abnormal,’ he says. However, since having an operation at the age of 21 to remove a benign tumour on his pituitary gland, his condition is now under control and he has grown in confidence. He even became a bit of a celebrity in Paraiba, Brazil, where he lives, and began to attract admirers, including 21-year-old Evem Medeiros. Joelison says of Evem: ‘The day I saw her I think it was love at first sight.’ Although, at 5ft, she is almost three foot smaller than her partner, they say size is no obstacle to their romance. Well, after his father-in-law got over the shock. Evem admits: ‘He told me “daughter, I told you to get a man, a great man. You exaggerated.”‘ Just a year later, they were married and they’re now trying for a baby, which has brought some ‘unwelcome’ questions about Joelison’s proportions, says the couple. Joelison clarifies, tongue-in-cheek, ‘the size of my feet is false advertising.’ |
