In September 2016, Paulo Gabriel de Silva Barros and Katyucia Lie Hoshino Barros got married and earned the title of “The World’s Shortest Couple.”
Paulo, 31, is 35.54 inches tall, and Katyucia, 28, is 35.88 inches tall. Both of them have been diagnosed with dwarfism and together, they have a combined height of just 71.42 inches.
The couple met in 2006 through a now-outdated social media platform, Orkut.
“I found her very beautiful from the first moment I saw her,” Paulo admitted.
For Katyucia, the emotions weren’t mutually felt. She initially blocked him on the social media platform, but Paulo refused to let this stop him.
Over the next two years, he attempted to and ultimately succeeded in winning her over. The duo met in person for the first time on December 20, 2008 and began their relationship just nine days later.
They maintained their long-distance relationship for the next four years, until Katyucia decided to move in with Paulo in January 2012. It didn’t take long for the couple to realize they wanted to spend the rest of their lives together – in spite of all the challenges they would face together.
Whenever Paulo and Katyucia went out together, they attracted more attention than either would have received, individually. Though this attention wasn’t much wanted, the couple used this opportunity to find greater strength in sticking together even through the attention.
Now that the couple is finally wed, they’re looking forward to finally sharing their lives together in full.
“We may be short but we have big hearts and lots of love for each other as well as everybody in our lives. Our life isn’t without its challenges but we are so happy we can tackle these challenges together,” Katyucia said.
“We hope our new record will encourage the world to look past the physical differences in others and understand all people should be treated equally.”
You can watch a video of the sweet couple interacting together here:
