By Rebecca Chitolie
THIS SIX-foot two inch tall model has left her online fans reeling by announcing she has fallen head over heels for a five-foot eleven inch tall man she calls her “Short King.”
Proud member of “The Tallest Family”, content creator and model Marie Temara (28) from Palm Beach, Florida USA, has gone viral online with over 2.5 million views so far for sharing how she fell for her new boyfriend of two months, student Matthew Quigley (27), who is an all-important three inches shorter than her.
Even more impressively, Marie weighs 210 pounds and her boyfriend Matthew weighs 140 pounds – but they don’t allow the differences in their height or weight to bother them despite Marie being able to easily lift Matthew.
Marie’s online following is huge, with 2.2 million followers on TikTok and 1.6 million followers on Instagram and a combined following of around 5.4 million on all of her platforms.
Marie and her family make regular videos and are known as The Tallest Family online. Her loyal fans regularly comment on her videos confessing their love for her, asking to date her and to marry her.
Marie met her boyfriend via Tinder, the online dating site. She has received a lot of hateful comments from jealous fans, such men saying that they wish she would die, and that her boyfriend is weak and unable to protect her.
“I love dating short kings, as height doesn’t bother me,” said Marie.
“My mom has always been taller than my dad, so I’ve never seen height as an issue when dating.
“People were shocked to see me with someone shorter because society still thinks that the man should be taller than the woman in the relationship.”
She and her family of five are known as the Tallest Family online and have gone viral with the tall gene apparently being passed from the family matriarch.
Her mother Christine Temara (61) is six-foot five-inches, and father Mike Temara (62) is six-foot three-inches.
They have been married for 35 years and have two other children, Shane (27) six-foot nine-inches, and Troy (25) six-foot ten-inches, who have also had their height affect their lives dramatically.
“I was often bullied in school for being bigger and taller than everyone”, said Temara.
“My brothers were also the tallest in their classes, but they used their heights to their advantage and gained Division 1 collegiate basketball scholarships.
“My mother was also bullied for her height when she was in school, and she was even taller than me, so she said it was even worse.”
She said that her and her boyfriend receive negative comments because of their weight and height differences.
“There are some negative ones because of our height difference and 70 pounds weight difference, such as ‘that’s not a real man’ and ‘she wears the pants in the relationship’”, said Marie.
“Other comments include ‘this is sad’, ‘your man skipped every single leg day known to man’, ‘he’s too small for her’.
“Some people taunt him and make fun of him telling him that he can’t handle me and he won’t be able to protect me.”
Marie said that her boyfriend is unphased by the comments.
“Luckily he is very supportive and understanding and does not care what other people think. He continues to make videos with me and my family despite all of the comments,” said Temara.
Marie said despite some negativity, sharing her story online has been a comfort since the comments she received about her height before being online were predominantly negative.
“The comments I received about my height before I shared my story online were generally negative, since I was bullied all throughout school for being overweight and taller than everyone”, said Temara.
“People would say I was too tall, too big, and say mean comments like ‘she looks like a man’, ‘thunder thighs’ or that no one likes tall girls.
“I used to absolutely hate my height, and even looked into getting height reduction surgery so I could be shorter and fit in with everyone else.”
Marie said the comments had a large impact on her.
“The constant negative comments caused me to be extremely shy all throughout my childhood and adulthood, to this day, I am still shy because of it. I have never really had any friends and I’ve always struggled to fit in. That is why I turned to the internet for comfort and community”, said Temara.
“Kids would always call me names and start rumors about me which caused me to have no friends. This in turn made me sad and depressed and I always questioned my existence.
“I always bottled everything up and never talked about it until I started TikTok and realized a lot of people can relate to the bullying.”
Marie said she has received positive comments about her relationship with her boyfriend from people online too.
“The comments say things like, ‘There is still hope for us short kings’”, said Marie.
“That man was not afraid to climb.”
She added that many people also praise her boyfriend for dating her.
“A lot of people have praised him for being with me as a taller woman, congratulating him and calling him a lucky man”, said Temara.
“People have joked that he would have to go up on me instead of down and that he has the best view.”
She explained how her height has helped her.
“I played basketball in college and graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Business. Upon graduating, I moved to Florida and worked as an accountant for four years before going viral on TikTok one day, which kickstarted our social media career as The Tallest Family online”, said Marie.
“Sharing my height online has completely changed my life and my family’s lives. I was able to retire both of my parents and both of my brothers quit their jobs as professional basketball players to work for me.
“Since then, all five of us have quit our jobs and now live together in one house to make content everyday.”
Marie said she felt empowered to share her height and story.
“I felt empowered to share my height and all of the struggles and realities of being a tall girl and a tall family”, said Marie.
“Social media has given me confidence in my height and I hope to inspire others to love themselves and their height, whether they be short or tall.
“Now, I love myself and would not change my height or weight for the world.
“But I do wish I was taller. That’s why I always joke that I identify as seven-feet tall.”
ENDS
