Size doesn’t matter, after all.
Paulo Gabriel da Silva Barros and Katyucia Hoshino of Brazil are the world’s shortest couple – measuring a combined 5 feet, 10 inches — and hope to make it into the Guinness Book of World Records.
Paulo, 30, a legal secretary who is 34.8 inches tall, has diastrophic dysplasia dwarfism. He is considering a mayoral run his hometown of Itapeva.
“Respect wasn’t conquered from one day to another. Respect was conquered through a lot of hard work,” he told Barcroft Media
Katyucia, 26, has achondroplasia dwarfism and is about an inch taller than Paul. She owns a beauty salon.
“It was a dream I had, a very long time ago. But because of how my life happened I didn’t get the opportunity,” she said. “We adapted my gurney, we adapted everything that needed to be adapted and then I really started working in that area.”
The pint-sized paramours met on a social media website about 10 years ago and started chatting on MSN Messenger.
“I found her very beautiful from the first moment I saw her,” he said, though it wasn’t love at first sight for Katyucia, who initially blocked him on the instant messaging site.
“The first time I started talking to Paulo, he was really annoying. He had cheap pick-up lines,” she said.
Katyucia had a change of heart and unblocked him a year and a half later. “By then he was already more relatable,” she said.
A couple of months later, Paulo traveled over 186 miles to Katyucia’s home city of Londrina to meet her.
“He was wearing an orange shirt, jeans and sunglasses — thank God it has improved since then,” she said.
Four years later, they moved in together.
“Basically, we are a normal couple but our height is a little smaller,” Paulo said. “The best thing about our relationship is our closeness, our companionship we have for each other.”
After eight years together, the diminutive duo are considering getting married — though Paulo has yet to pop the question.
“We’ve discussed having kids. My pregnancy would be high risk because the size of my uterus wouldn’t support a baby,” she said. “We’ve decided to let things happen at the right moment. In regards to the future, we say: ‘Never say never.’”