Brazil has produced the world’s shortest couple who recently married to claim the world title.
Paulo Gabriel da Silva Barros and Katyucia Lie Hoshino are the world’s shortest couple
In celebration of GWR Day 2016, the
title holders for Smallest married couple have travelled to London this
week to visit the London HQ of Guinness World Records.
Paulo Gabriel da Silva Barros and
Katyucia Lie Hoshino, both of Brazil, have been verified at a combined
height of just 181.41 cm (71.42 in), and became world record holders
back in September after tying the knot.
Paulo (aged 31 and 90.28 cm (35.54 in)
in height),and Katyucia, (28 and 91.13 cm (35.88 in) first met in 2006
through the now defunct social media platform, Orkut.
‘I found her very beautiful from the first moment I saw her,’ he explains.
But Katyucia didn’t reciprocate and at first blocked him on the instant messaging site, before Paulo eventually won her over.
They would chat online regularly for a
couple of years before first meeting in person on 20 December 2008. They
began dating on 29 December.
They maintained a long distance relationship for four years, managing to see each other every couple of months.
In January 2012, Katyucia decided to
move from her hometown of Londrina to Paulo’s town, Itapeva. They did
not need to live together long before they knew they were meant to be
together.
Paulo, a civil servant for his local
government, and Katyucia, beauty salon owner, receive a lot of attention
for their height, and not all of it is good. They find that being
together attracts more attention – but equally, being together gives
them greater strength in dealing with the attention.
Paulo was unable to walk until the age
of 21. In an attempt to be more independent, he used a child’s tricycle
to aid his mobility in his late teens, and upgraded to a four-wheeler
when he turned 20.
Having learned to walk and following the
fitting of orthopaedic boots in 2008, he vowed to never use a child’s
bike again – he upgraded to a specially fitted out car which he still
drives today. His colleagues know him as ‘Paulinho Gigante’ – Giant
Paulo.
Speaking ahead of today’s celebrations on the international day of record breaking, Katyucia said: “We
are so happy to be a part of Guinness World Records Day and to have our
unique record celebrated. We hope our new record will encourage the
world to look past the physical differences in others and understand all
people should be treated equally.”
“We
may be short but we have big hearts and lots of love for each other as
well as everybody in our lives. Our life isn’t without its challenges
but we are so happy we can tackle these challenges together.”
Check out our heartwarming video below,
which sees the happy couple take part in a fun “Mr & Mrs” style quiz
as they are given a special tour around our London office.
-GuinnessWorldRecords
0 comments:
Post a Comment