Through thick, but not thin

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Sheree Langford was killing herself with food. Tipping the scales at 235 kilograms, the 29-year-old's life was a misery.

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Obesity expert Dr George Hopkins said Mrs Langford was at the end of her tether.

"There is no question that her personal life, and her ability to see life continuing, was crumbling around her," she said.

And by Mrs Langford's side was her husband Brett, who contacted Today Tonight desperate to arrange a lifesaving lap band operation for his wife.

"If Sheree can't have this operation, the next thing we'll be looking at, is how to pay for her funeral," he said.

So with the help of Dr Hopkins and his team, his wife had the surgery.

Now two years on, and 120 kilograms lighter, her life has changed, and in ways she never imagined.

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"There (are) no words to describe it, just my quality of life's improved immensely," Mrs Langford said.

But after nine years of marriage, the pair are filing for divorce, with both parties blaming, in part, the dramatic weight loss.

"I just think I'm the kind of person who has a large heart for larger women," Mr Langford said.

"They have got a lot to give, and I have got a lot to give back."

And his wife agrees: "He seemed happy when he could look after me and know that I was going to be there when he got home, or know that I wasn't going out to parties and stuff because I couldn't, I couldn't go out and socialise."

Dr Hopkins said the Langford's story is not unique.

"In my practice, there can be quite significant changes in family relationships and spousal relationships, as people lose dramatic amounts of weight," he said.

And it's not as simple as two people just growing a part, it's a syndrome called Motherhen complex according to psychologist Phil Jauncy.

"Some people have a fetish over certain things, (they) might have a foot fetish, a fat fetish, a skin colour fetish, whatever you do, you get people that have (a liking for it)," Dr Jaucy said.

Mr Langford says he has always been attracted to larger women.

"It has to do with individual taste," he said, "some people like tall women, some people like short women, I like large women."

"Probably over the course of my life, I have dated, or been with, four, or five larger women, and to me they have just got a big, beautiful heart," he said.

But Dr Jaucy said a preference for overweight women is more than purely physical attraction.

"What it is, is somebody saying, 'I don't think I can succeed in a normal relationship, so if I can find an atypical relationship where I am not one of many, than I will have a higher chance of success,'" he said.

"I (will) have a higher chance of that person saying that (they) need me," Dr Jaucy said.

Mr Langford has moved on, he says, to bigger and better things. His estranged wife Sheree has found love again with new man Matt.