‘My hubby loves my sexy 8ft hips – I’ll never diet’

Bootylicious takes on a whole new meaning in relation to Mikel Ruffinelli – the mum-of-four has the biggest hips in the world, measuring a staggering 8ft in circumference

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by Closer staff |
Published on

Published 08 January 2013

Mikel – who tips the scales at 30st – insists she’s proud of her shape, scoffing 3,000 calories a day to keep her “booty” in perfect condition.

Vowing she’ll never diet, Mikel says her husband of 10 years, Reggie Brooks, 40, a computer technician, adores her figure.

Mikel, 39, says: “I love my shape and I see no reason to diet because I don’t have health problems. I love Mexican food, English breakfasts and chips. My husband finds my shape sexy and we have an amazing time in bed – there’s no position we can’t do! He tells me I’m beautiful every day. Men don’t fancy skinny girls, they like an hourglass figure.”

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Mikel, who’s 5ft 4, shuffles through doors sideways, has steel supported chairs at home and drives a truck as she can’t fit into a car. She even sleeps in a 7ft-wide bed.

Slim as a teenager, she started gaining weight aged 22 after the birth of her first child, Andrew, now 19, from a previous relationship.



She says: “I was an athletic teenager and weighed 10st. I never had problems with my weight, although big hips do run in the family.

My mum, gran and great gran all have them – but theirs aren’t as big as mine.

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After having Andrew in 1994, I went from 13st and a size 16 to 17st and a size 20 and couldn’t shift it.”

And, as three more children – Destynee, 13, Autumn, nine, and Justyce, seven – followed over the next decade with Reggie, her hips ballooned, and she reached 30st and a size 32. 

She says: “I put it down to my pregnancies. I don’t see why else the weight would go to my hips, although, I do eat lots.”

Lunch is fried fish and French fries, but dinner’s my big meal

She adds: “It sounds like a lot to have 3,000 calories, but for someone my size, it’s not really. I might have a breakfast of two eggs with sausage and bacon and a handful of potatoes. Lunch is fried fish and French fries, but dinner’s my big meal. I like to make barbecue chicken with rice or mash. I have a big portion – but I’m not greedy. I snack on peanuts, granola bars and crisps.”

And Mikel, who has a proportionally small 40-inch waist and 42D bust, insists she is happy with her figure, saying: “In the past, I was self-conscious about my hips and tried milkshake diets, but they didn’t work. 

As I got older, I learned to love my body and now I’m not afraid to show it off. Being healthy is the main thing. I do water aerobics to keep fit – I can’t run on land! I struggle to buy sexy underwear, though. I get most of my knickers custom made.”

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In fact, Mikel, who lives in LA where she’s studying for a psychology degree, is so confident, for the past five years she’s modelled for a Big Beautiful Women website, earning up to £600 per shoot.

I hope I inspire women to think, ‘She’s happy with her body and I can be too!’”
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She says: “I mostly wear lingerie. I have two seamstresses who make my outfits, although I can easily find clothes for my top half, it’s the bottoms that are a problem.”

But Mikel says she gets laughed at, revealing: “When I walk down the street I can hear people using cameras and saying: ‘Look at her fat ass.’ Fortunately, I rise above it. I don’t want to get bigger, but I don’t want to lose my curves. I look great. I hope I inspire women to think, ‘She’s happy with her body and I can be too!’”

Dr Sarah Jarvis, a clinical consultant for Patient.co.uk, says: “Some people are genetically predisposed to gain weight around their abdomen or hips. However, being obese can cause diabetes, high-blood pressure, arthritis, a stroke or heart attack and puts a huge amount of stress on joints.”

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