How is Chris Combs doing now?

 

Depending on how you look at it, Chris Combs is both very lucky and extremely unfortunate to have been featured on television alongside his YouTube sisters Tammy and Amy Slaton, who are also known by their series’ title – “1000-lb Sisters.” It’s a reality TV show launched by TLC in 2020, following the seemingly eternal weight loss journey of the infamous duo.

Their notoriety is among some of the highest on YouTube, and for good reason. If there’s any surefire way to betray one’s viewers and disappoint their audience, the sisters have most likely done it by now. While the show itself is quite similar to “My 600-lb Life” in terms of what it strives to achieve, the largely negative reputation of the two sisters makes it nothing like its cousin.

Instead, it’s the amalgamation of their well-documented empty promises, irresponsible decisions, crocodile tears and even outright scams, all neatly packaged into a Tammy-Slaton-bite-sized cheeseburger of drama and non-existent progress, which is highly likely to perpetuate until the show’s eventual cancellation.

Combs, who initially appeared in the show simply for the sake of being a supportive brother, has struggled with his own weight for years. At the start of filming, he was working at McDonald’s and only 40lbs (18kgs) away from his lifetime-heaviest weight. Unlike his sisters, however, Chris’ weight loss was a relatively straightforward endeavor, as he stuck to the doctor’s advice and behaved responsibly throughout the ordeal.

The vile origins of Amy and Tammy Slaton

Tammy and Amy first caught the public eye in 2014, at which point they began appearing together frequently in videos on Amy’s YouTube channel. While originally created in 2011, it wasn’t until three years later that it would actually come alive, as the sisters started uploading frequently. More specifically, Amy was the one recording and uploading, while Tammy would almost always appear alongside her.

The sisters’ rarely-seen amount of excess weight combined with their generally carefree behavior, to birth a seemingly confident and easygoing vibe, which came as a shock to most viewers at the time. This allowed them to slowly but surely gather a faithful audience, much to everyone’s ultimate dismay.

The video that skyrocketed them through the algorithm and into millions of direct messages in a matter of days is entitled “Chubby bunny challenge,” uploaded 10 November 2014. The entire stunt consisted of both sisters stuffing as many marshmallows in their mouths as possible, and uttering ‘chubby bunny’ after adding each individual one. The stand-off would last until either sister swallowed or spat out a marshmallow.

While both sisters were severely overweight at the time, what made them an entirely unique sight was the accumulation of adipose tissue in Tammy’s forehead, which gave her skull a bloated appearance and a very unnatural head shape. In spite of these severe physical setbacks, the sisters often had a friendly and even laidback disposition, which kept viewers coming back for more.

What they weren’t aware of at the time was that some of their regular camera stories were anything but ordinary and acceptable, and the earliest example of this is by far the most innocent one – Amy admitted on camera that she was arrested for shoplifting when attempting to steal a $7 book from Walmart.

While not really significant in nature, this petty crime set an ominous precedent of the despicable acts these two would commit throughout their YouTube career. Of course, no one thought much of it at the time, aside from maybe Amy learning a simple lesson in etiquette. New fans piled up, providing the sisters with hundreds of encouraging comments on pretty much every single video, which eventually caused them to relax and become emboldened enough to show their true nature.

Blatant animal abuse

In another one of their many vlogs further down the line, Amy complained that her camper’s AC system was broken by their insolent dog, who also bit her thigh and forearm. As a result, they were taking the canine to the local pound so as to have it observed for further signs of aggression. The dog was to be put down if the violent behavior persisted, or otherwise given to a new family.

At first glance, their actions are quite understandable. After all, who wants to get mauled by their own dog for no reason? However, there’s more to the story – Amy actually left the German Shepherd she’d recently adopted all alone in a camper in scorching hot temperatures at midday, with no air-conditioning on.

She said in the video that the AC was on, but if that were the case, the dog wouldn’t have had to break out of the camper. With a quick look at Amy’s general lifestyle, it becomes apparent that she’s not exactly an epitome of responsibility, which is greatly needed by anyone who wants to own a dog.

Their disgusting lack of care for pets continued well into the peak of their careers, another example being the time they left their new dog, Little Bit inside a car that was quickly converted into an oven, also without the AC on. If not for Tammy allegedly returning a couple of times to give the dog some ice water, it definitely would’ve perished in the heat.

Supposedly, Amy thought of Little Bit as her own daughter, and was devastated to see the chihuahua pass away due to cancer-related health complications at the age of 22. This clearly evident hypocrisy that pervaded almost every aspect of the Slatons is what turned the audience away from their channel in droves.

Scamming money out of fans

Not having learned a thing from the negative comments of their honest critics, the sisters continued behaving in whatever way they wanted, eventually beginning to use their influence as content creators to drain money out of the fans. While most YouTubers have a membership offer or a Patreon page, all of which comes with extra benefits, the sisters simply asked people for money.

The first example of this took place when Amy came up with a GoFundMe page, asking their fans to donate money so they could get a MacBook and increase the editing and thus overall quality of their videos. Regardless of this idea seeming like a simple win-win transaction, a lot of the fans were outraged at the proposal, telling the sisters to get off their backsides and actually earn a living like everyone else does.

The difference between an average streamer and the Slaton sisters asking for donations is that the streamer is normally a person who tries hard to entertain, and devotes a sizable chunk of valuable time towards that career pretty much every day, while the Slaton sisters press the record button, talk, stop filming, and upload.

Amy then very unconvincingly told the viewers that none of that was her or Tammy’s idea, but that her friend insisted she do it just so they could measure the reaction. Understandably, not many fell for this obvious excuse, since it was just as convincing as their everyday responsibility evasion fairytales.

Unfortunately, by the time the GoFundMe page was taken down, the sisters had made over $800, which they never returned to anyone. Even though that’s not really a vast sum of money, it’s way above the regular wage of most of their viewers. Regardless, the sisters didn’t really care about that, and simply ignored the odd one asking to have their hard-earned donation returned.

Organizing harassment

In yet another horrendous admission, Amy casually spoke about the time she went on a date and it didn’t work out for her. The man she went to dinner with was also autistic, which caused him to require slightly better explanations of a few things that non-neurodivergent individuals don’t struggle with.

The date apparently went well, and they booked a hotel room aiming to engage in kissing and subsequently intercourse. Feeling clearly superior to the man, Amy figured she would teach him what a hickey is and thus give him one, but her date was confused as to what she was doing, accusing her of biting him. This infuriated Amy, who expected him to magically just understand what has happening, so she actually did bite him at that point.

Outraged, the young man took to social media after a massively disappointing night out, and post about why it’s wrong to be physically violent with someone in spite of their wishes. However, his tone there, was defensive, and he made sure not to mention or reveal anything about Amy herself.

This angered the Slaton sister even more, at which point she took to the comment section of his post and offended him based on his penis size. As if that weren’t enough, she also posted his phone number on the internet, calling him various derogatory terms and accusing him of lacking the manhood she considers to be elementary.

Tax evasion and disability fraud

While it’s been normal for over a decade for content creators to ask their audience for money, the way in which the Slatons went about doing this caused sheer disgust among the public. The reason for this is that whenever a content creator does ask for money, they do so while being open about their financial situation.

Some YouTubers, for example, grow their channel as a side hustle, and those who donate to them are aware that the website isn’t their primary source of income. Others work on YouTube full-time, and depend on their viewers’ payments to sustain their livelihood.

In the case of the Slatons, they asked the viewers to buy their merchandise because both of them were unemployed, supposedly due to crippling excess weight. However, in another one of their rant videos, Amy revealed that they’re on disability checks, with Amy receiving one for both her weight and restricted eyesight.

Furthermore, the way that the sisters sold their merchandise wasn’t through an online marketplace, but through a donation link. Those purchasing their items would leave their email within the donation message, and the sisters would then contact them and send the goods.

Just a warning there’s a lot of fake accounts pretending to be me

— Tammi ❤ (@Tammy_Slaton) March 10, 2021

By having the payments count as donations, Amy and Tammy were effectively receiving tax-free money under the guise of an online business, which allowed them to keep receiving disability checks on top of their content creator income.

Of course, due to the nature of the ‘transaction,’ there was no proof of purchase, no refund option, and no shipment tracking, meaning every single buyer was left to the sheer mercy and lackluster responsibility of Amy and Tammy, after literally giving away their hard-earned money in hopes of getting what they purchased.

The ‘business’ eventually came to a complete halt when it was revealed that the sisters weren’t even paying the artists who designed their merchandise, in spite of having access to way more than enough to cover those expenses. Due to the scandal, Tammy’s TikTok with over one million followers was permanently banned for fraudulent activity.

The infamous funeral scam

One day the fans woke up to more grim news from the sisters, according to which Tammy fell over and was unable to breathe for a while. She was rushed to hospital, and promptly diagnosed with pneumonia. Her condition then worsened, and she was placed on life support for the next three weeks.

Amy then started a GoFundMe campaign for her sister’s funeral, citing the reason as being unable to afford the burial expenses that would most likely follow, all the while her sister was still very much alive in the hospital. The fans were confused, however, since the sisters were making good money at the time, allowing Amy to actually afford the entire funeral cost.

Almost comically, she stated that in regular circumstances this wouldn’t be a financial burden, but Tammy required a triple-sized extra-large coffin, which apparently had astronomical costs. Interestingly, even though Tammy was on a medical card, not even that added bonus combined with their entire income thus far would be enough for a coffin, at least according to Amy.

All the while, Amy pushed the GoFundMe campaign as the much-needed safety net without which she wouldn’t be able to financially survive Tammy’s inevitable death. She made it clear in another video that 100% of the proceeds would go only towards her sister’s funeral and absolutely nothing else.

After Tammy had returned to the videos regularly, and it was clear to everyone that she wasn’t in mortal danger, Amy told the viewers that she gave the money to her mother, who used it to pay Tammy’s bills. When asked to provide receipts for said payments, she stated that her mother was looking for them, and later changed her story to say they were simply thrown into the trash at some point.

The real success story

If anything, the audience can at least cheer for Chris Combs, who never engaged in any fraudulent activity, and was simply going through a hard time upon joining the second season of “My 1000-lb Life.” While initially only there to support his sisters, he was persuaded by TLC’s producers to undertake a weight loss journey of his own.

He eventually underwent weight loss surgery, and dropped around 140lbs (63kgs), but needed to stay physically active in order to maximize on the medical procedure. He ran into another issue when his daily workouts were restricted by his badly damaged leg, for which he also had surgery.

Chris is physically active and in mid-2023 continues to lose weight, with his blood sugar now leveled off and insulin injections no longer necessary. He still follows strict dietary plans and looks and feels healthier than ever, while also having a squeaky clean record, in spite of his sisters’ many wrongdoings – the only true Slaton success story.