The TLC star confirms her mother Barbara 'Babs' Thore passed away on Wednesday night, December 7 after being diagnosed with cerebral amyloid angiopathy that can cause dementia, seizures or brain bleeding.
- Dec 9, 2022
AceShowbiz - Whitney Way Thore is mourning the death of her mother. The TV personality, best known for starring on "My Big Fat Fabulous Life", has announced that her mother Barbara Thore a.k.a. Babs passed away on Wednesday night, December 7 at 10:32 P.M., the exact time Whitney was born back in 1984.
Whitney took to Instagram on Thursday to break the sad news. "My mother died last night just as the credits rolled on her favorite movie," she penned along with a video featuring photos of Barbara. "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."
The reality TV star revealed her mother was diagnosed with cerebral amyloid angiopathy, "an untreatable progressive condition 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)." She said her mother had three strokes over the last five years, with the last being on November 13 of this year.
"My mother is our family's greatest gift," Whitney paid tribute to her mother. "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."
She added of Barbara, who also appeared on the TLC show, "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.' That's how enormous, how generous, and how all-encompassing my mother's love was. I am the luckiest person on the planet to have been hers for almost 39 years."
Whitney said her mother "delighted in her newfound television career more than we can describe!" Seeing the silver lining of her mom's health struggles, she shared, "This last year navigating life after her second stroke was, perhaps surprisingly, the best of our lives. We never had more fun or laughed as much as we did the past year."
She went on thanking fans and viewers, noting, "The support from all of you made her feel so loved and encouraged. 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."
Barbara appeared in all 10 seasons of "My Big Fat Fabulous Life". Her health journey was documented on the show as the 10th season saw her road to recovery after she was released from the hospital following one of her strokes. She was 76 and is survived by Whitney, her husband Glenn as well as son Hunter.
