‘My Big Fat Fabulous Life’ Star Whitney Way Thore’s Mother Babs Has Died: ‘Rest In Peace, Sweet Mommy’
Whitney Way Thore’s mother Barbara “Babs” Thore has died at age 76. The star of TLC’s reality series My Big Fat Fabulous Life announced the sad news on social media on Dec. 8.
Whitney Way Thore’s mom Babs died Dec. 7
Babs died on Dec. 7, Thore shared in a lengthy Instagram post celebrating her mother’s life.
“Rest in peace, sweet mommy … My mother died last night just as the credits rolled on her favorite movie,” she wrote. “Dad, Hunter, and I held her as she took her last breaths. It was 10:32pm, the same exact time she brought me into this world almost forty years ago.”
As My Big Fat Fabulous Life viewers know, Babs had experienced several strokes over the past few years. She had a condition called cerebral amyloid angiopathy, her daughter explained, which is “caused by proteins in the blood vessels of the brain that can cause dementia, seizures, or like in my mom’s case, brain bleeding (hemorrhagic strokes).”
Babs had her first stroke in 2017, a second in late December 2021, and a third on Nov. 13, 2022, Whitney said.
The ‘My Big Fat Fabulous Life’ star called her mother her family’s ‘greatest gift’
Alongside a slideshow of moments from Babs’ life, Whitney shared a moving tribute to her mom.
“My mother is our family’s greatest gift,” she wrote. “We could never love, revere, or value another person more. If you’re reading this, you’re familiar with her magic: her southern charm, her hilarious sense of humor, her well-timed witty remarks, her beauty, and her ability to make everyone around her feel comfortable and cared for. But what you can’t possibly understand is the extent of my mother’s love — what you may have witnessed and felt through a TV screen is a minute fraction that, even if multiplied by a million, wouldn’t come close to ‘real life.’”
“I am the luckiest person on the planet to have been hers for almost 39 years,” she added.
Whitney Way Thore thanks her show’s fans for loving her mother
In her post, Thore also thanked My Big Fat Fabulous Life fans for “loving” her mother.
“She delighted in her newfound television career more than we can describe! It gave her such a sense of purpose and excitement and something to look forward to every time the crew came around,” she wrote.
“The support from all of you made her feel so loved and encouraged,” Whitney added. “We are unbelievably thankful that we’ve been able to share her with you and it is our hope that her memory will continue to be a source of comfort and happiness for the rest of your lives, just as it will be for ours.”
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