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“Who’d want to marry me, a dwarf from Wales?” This is something James Lusted often used to wonder. At just over a metre tall he couldn’t imagine finding Mrs Right – but he hadn’t reckoned on meeting Chloe Roberts.
She saw James for his heart and his mind and soon fell head over heels. At 1,66m tall, Chloe towers over James’ 1,09m and, according to the Guinness World Records, they are the couple with the biggest height difference in the world.
“What an amazing feeling to know that we officially hold the title for the greatest height differential of a different sex married couple,” James posted on Instagram. “We are so proud and honoured.”
The 33-year-old from Colwyn Bay, in Wales, was born with diastrophic dysplasia, a rare genetic condition that causes dwarfism. He was born with “hitchhiker” thumbs (hypermobile digits that can bend backwards) and club feet and has cartilage problems in his joints. Being his size is tricky sometimes, James says, “but I can do everything you can do, just in a different way”.
He finds it hard to believe he and his wife feature in the records he grew up with. “I’ve always had the books at Christmas and love looking through them. There are some amazing records, but to have one of them now . . .”
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The couple, who’ve been happily married for five years, says their height difference of 56,8cm is not an issue for them. “There’s no height in love,” James says. “We love each other for who we are as people.”
Their love story began in 2012. James, a TV presenter, pantomime actor and motivational speaker, had carried the Olympic torch through his hometown before the start of the London Games. Shortly afterwards, friends introduced him to Chloe at a local pub.
But, he says, he’d already noticed the blonde beauty while he was walking through the crowd. “She caught my eye.”
The attraction wasn’t instant. “It took a little while before we ended up dating,” James admits.
Chloe, who’s a teacher and was a student at the time, is honest about the fact that James wasn’t her usual type. She was used to taller guys, which is why she was a bit apprehensive about dating at first.
“I guess everyone has that little bit of fear of ‘what's everyone going to think?’ kinda thing. It’s just a natural instinct,” she says.
Yet there was no denying their chemistry, and the couple started dating at the end of 2013. “As soon as you meet Jay, you forget about the height. You just focus on him as a person and you fall in love with him,” Chloe says.
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She says his enthusiasm and positivity is what stood out. She remembers a date at a restaurant when James was handed a children’s colouring book and crayons by a waitress who mistook him for a child. He could have been insulted but he chose to see the funny side.
“I said, ‘thank you very much’ to the waitress and as soon as she heard my voice, she knew I wasn’t a child. She hid the colouring book behind her back and didn’t disturb us again.”
Seven months after they started dating, James decided it was time to take their relationship to the next level. Despite his cartilage condition which makes it difficult for him to bend down, James got down on one knee and popped the question.
In 2016 the couple exchanged vows and Chloe says their special day was everything she’d wanted.
A friend of James built him stepladder so he could be the same height as his bride and he says it made for an incredible occasion. “The wedding was amazing. All our friends and family were there,” James said.
Three years later, baby Olivia came along to complete their happiness. The proud dad says he felt “10 feet tall” when he found out Chloe was expecting a baby. “Being Olivia’s dad is the best feeling ever,” he says. “We’re cherishing every moment.”
When the family made an appearance on UK breakfast show This Morning recently, Olivia (2), who doesn’t have her dad’s condition, stole the show, blissfully unaware of all the attention.
James says she doesn’t realise that her dad is different yet. He knows that day will come and when it does, they’ll deal with it.
The couple plan to raise her the same way his parents raised James. Growing up his parents, who are both of average height, didn’t care about his dwarfism and just “cracked on”.
Thanks to that attitude he has lived a rich and eventful life. In 2017 he was elected as Britain’s first dwarf councillor, he represented Great Britain in the World Dwarf Games twice and has been the UK champion at Class One badminton (for people with different abilities) for nine years.
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But he admits it hasn’t always been easy. He’s spent a lot of his youth in and out of hospital getting treatments for neck problems and having his limbs straightened. “Dad had to use a spanner every day to twist the nuts on my frame to straighten my legs and sometimes you could hear the bones creaking,” James recalls.
But the toughest time of his life were his teenage years because of the bullying he suffered. “I remember I had a knife thrown at me. I was pinned up against the wall with my little legs dangling there and it really affected me,” he says.
But James says he got to a point where he had to take charge of his own happiness. “I had to say to myself that dwarfism doesn’t own me, I own dwarfism. I just wanted to be the same as everyone else and I just wanted to live my life in a big way, in a little body,” he adds.
And thanks to Chloe and Olivia, he is doing exactly that. “Holding my daughter in my arms is definitely in the top two of the best things I’ve ever done. Marrying Chloe was the other best day of my life,” he says.
Chloe says she hopes their story will be a lesson to others. “There is someone out there for everyone, and it perhaps won’t be who you imagine. I hope that our love story teaches others that you can never judge a book by its cover.”
SOURCES: SUN.CO.UK, DAILYMAIL.CO.UK, DAILYMAIL.CO.UK, JAMESLUSTED/INSTAGRAM, GUINNESSWORLDRECORDS.COM, MIRROR.CO.UK , HOPKINSMEDICINE.ORG, MEDLINEPLUS.GOV, RAREDISEASES.ORG, WALESONLINE.CO.UK, BBC.COM
