Fox News has confirmed the death of a beloved reality TV star.
Sean Milliken, who appeared on TLC’s My 600-lb Life in 2016, died last week of complications from an infection. He was 29.
“TLC is saddened to share that Sean Milliken has passed away,” the network said in a statement. “TLC expresses its deepest sympathies to Sean’s friends and family at this difficult time.”
A Heartbreaking Journey
According to TLC, Milliken began his nationally-syndicated weight loss journey “when he weighed over 900 lbs.” By the time the network caught up with him again the next year, Milliken had shed more than half the weight.
“Over the course of his weight loss journey, he victoriously lost over 400 lbs.,” the network reported. “TLC viewers caught up with Sean this past summer and learned that despite the loss of his mother, he was still continuing in his quest to live a healthier and happier life.”
Milliken’s mother, Renee, who also appeared on the TLC program, died in March 2018. Milliken said at the time that he was “devastated” by her passing.
“I don’t know what to do now because my mom was everything to me,” he said. At the time of his death, Milliken was working on taking his mother’s advice and losing weight in preparation for gastric bypass surgery.
“I am a prisoner,” Milliken once said of his condition. “All I want is out, and I never really thought my life would end up like this.”
The End of an Era
Milliken attributed his excessive weight gain to his allegedly toxic relationship with his father, for which he reportedly sought comfort in food.
“It was scary. So I would eat. And suddenly I felt a lot better,” Milliken, who was 25 at the time, said on a 2016 episode of My 600-lb Life. “In that moment, nothing else mattered.”
But his mother admitted to contributing to Milliken’s weight gain, as well. By high school, Milliken reportedly already weighed over 400 lbs, and a leg injury that left him bedridden only exacerbated the issue.
“I probably overcompensated in a lot of ways,” Renee Milliken admitted in one My 600-lb Life episode. “I couldn’t go to the store without bringing him home a treat.”
Milliken’s work with the show’s star physician helped his condition, and Ashley Boone, a former friend of the TLC star, said Milliken was “doing OK” before he fell ill. But Milliken’s father Matthew wrote on Facebook last week that earlier this month, his son was “admitted into the hospital…because of an infection.”
“Sunday he was having problems with his breathing, they were able to resuscitate him and a short time later his heart stopped,” Matthew Milliken said of his son.
Milliken is the third former My 600-lb Life star to have died in the last six months. Both 30-year-old James “L.B.” Bonner and 50-year-old Lisa Fleming passed away in August 2018.
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