"My 600-lb Life" Star Dolly Martinez Has Died
Dolly Martinez passed away and the people who watched her episode know exactly why this one stings.
Her sister Lindsey Cooper broke the news on Facebook on April 11. No cause of death was shared. Dolly was 28.
"Dolly had the brightest personality — she could light up any room with her laughter, her kindness and her loving spirit," Cooper wrote. "She had a way of making everyone feel special. While our hearts are broken here, I find comfort in knowing she is now reunited with our dad in heaven."
Her Story
Dolly appeared on Season 10 of My 600-lb Life in 2022 when she was 25 years old. She came in weighing 593 pounds and Dr. Nowzaradan told her she needed to lose over 450 pounds to get to a healthy weight. Those numbers alone are staggering. But what made her episode memorable wasn't the numbers — it was how openly she talked about what got her there.
Her dad struggled with drug addiction. She was diagnosed with ADD, oppositional defiant disorder, and bipolar disorder as a kid. By age 7 she weighed 120 pounds. School was hard in ways that went beyond the weight.
"Teachers made me feel like I was more special ed than I am," she said. "It just made me want to eat more."
She described food the way people describe substances — not as comfort exactly, but as the only thing that could drown out everything else.
"The only thing powerful enough to distract me from darker thoughts is food. Food is my go-to drug that takes my pain away. It's my reason for existing."
That kind of honesty is rare on television. Most people in her situation would have kept some of that private. She didn't. She put all of it out there and a lot of viewers connected with her because of it.
She also talked about her estranged husband and the role he played in her weight gain — another layer of the story she didn't have to share but did anyway.
Why This Hits Different
My 600-lb Life has lost cast members before, and each time it's a reminder of how serious and complicated these stories are beneath the reality TV format. These are real people dealing with real pain — addiction, trauma, mental illness — that manifested in a way that's visible and easy to reduce to a number on a scale.
Dolly didn't let that happen. She made sure you understood what was underneath. That's what people are grieving today — not just her death but the loss of someone who was genuinely trying to be seen and understood.
Her sister said it simply. Dolly made everyone feel special. Some people just have that thing. And it has nothing to do with external appearances.
Rest easy, Dolly.
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