Jean Nidetch had the timing and gravel voice of a standup comic, plus the psychological perception and charisma of a great preacher. She put those gifts to good use in 1961, as a housewife in her 30s weighing 97kg (15st 4lb), after a neighbour asked, genuinely, how soon the baby was due. Nidetch faced the mirror, and the shock released her other self, Jean the Lean, who set up Weight Watchers, the founding church of slimming. Nidetch, who has died aged 91, lost the weight, and never again exceeded 64kg.
She was born in Brooklyn, New York, where her father, David Slutsky, was a cab driver. Her mother, Mae, a manicurist, compensated for all Jean’s woes in her childhood with a mouthful of sweetness. Jean met her future husband, Marty Nidetch, in a luncheonette, and they courted in diners, knowing every local restaurant that didn’t charge extra for dessert; in 1947, she was his size 18 bride, with the sides of her dress let out.
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