Inside the life of the world’s tallest man: How 8ft 3ins Turkish giant Sultan Kosen, 41, married Syrian woman 2ft 7in shorter than him only to divorce her over ‘language barrier’… and now he travels the world looking for love
Sultan Kosen is the world’s tallest man at a staggering 2.5 meters tall, but he has long refused to let his extraordinary height get in his way.
The globetrotting giant has visited more than 120 countries and counting, enjoys celebrity status and has worked as a farmer, circus performer and honorary ambassador in his native Turkey.
The 41-year-old owes his staggering height to a rare condition called pituitary gigantism, which causes his body to constantly produce growth hormones.
He is one of only ten people to ever reach heights of over 2.5 metres, and was awarded the Guinness World Record in 2009 for being the tallest man in the world.
Kosen has since appeared alongside the world’s smallest woman, Jyoti Amge, who stands just 60cm tall, for the first time at the Egyptian pyramids six years ago, before being reunited in California earlier this week.
Although Kosen’s height, comparable to that of a small giraffe, has brought him fame and a jet-set lifestyle, he has also faced its downsides throughout his life.
Sadly, true love eluded Kosen, whose marriage to a Syrian woman 2 feet shorter than him ended in divorce due to their language barrier. His heartbreak prompted him to go on a world tour in search of Mrs. Right.
Kosen and Amge smiled happily as they posed for a photo together yesterday
Kosen, 41, and Amge, 30, previously met for a photo shoot in Cairo, Egypt, in 2018, where they posed in front of the Giza pyramids as part of a campaign to revive the country’s struggling tourism industry.
According to the Guinness World Records, Kosen is the first person in more than a decade to measure over 2.5 meters and is one of only 10 confirmed cases in history. He earned the record title in 2009 (photo above)
Kosen’s marriage to a Syrian woman who was two feet shorter than him ended in divorce due to a language barrier
Kosen started skyrocketing at the age of ten, becoming the tallest man in the world in 2009 and finally stopping growing in 2011.
He is one of five siblings, while the rest of his family are all ‘normal’ size.
As a teenager, Kosen signed up for his local basketball team but was told he was too tall to play. Since then he has cheered on his favorite sport from the sidelines.
His height also forced him to quit school and work part-time as a farmer.
Although his height held him back as a child, recognizing his uniqueness helped change his life.
During his first visit to Britain in September 2009, he said he hoped his newfound fame would change his life and help him find a wife.
‘It’s very difficult to find a girlfriend. Mostly they are afraid of me. Hopefully now that I’m famous I can meet a lot of girls. My dream is to get married.’
He was able to fulfill this wish when he married the Syrian woman Merve Dibo in 2013.
He gushed at the time: ‘When I looked into her eyes I knew it was love.’
His bride, who was 20 when they tied the knot, said: ‘At first everyone around me told me not to marry him because of his height, but I fell in love with his heart, not his height. His height doesn’t bother me at all.’
The couple divorced later in 2021, with a language barrier – with him speaking only Turkish and his wife speaking only Arabic – being the biggest problem in their relationship.
Kosen’s search for love continued as he traveled the world, with his first stop being Moscow, where he had hoped to find a new woman with whom he would have a son and a daughter.
He then moved his quest to America, where he has visited 127 of the world’s 195 countries, with no sign of his world tour ending anytime soon.
The tallest man in the world poses with the shortest man in the world in 2010
Chandra Bahadur Dangi, from Nepal, (L) the smallest adult ever verified by Guinness World Records, is pictured with the world’s tallest man Sultan Kosen from Turkey in 2014
The world’s tallest man Sultan Kosen (R) poses with his fiancée Merve Dibo during their henna evening, the ceremony held a day before the wedding, on October 26, 2013
In addition to traveling in search of love, Kosen also toured the Indian Ocean as part of a circus troupe, charging punters $10 to have their picture taken with him.
“There must be thousands of acrobats and jugglers in the world, but when you start talking about Sultan Kosen, you are talking about only one in seven billion people on this planet,” Bruno Loyale, the circus’ CEO and ringmaster, told the local media. .
He also had a cooking show in Romania, in which he is said to have participated.
Kosen, always one to look on the bright side, has said his height offers a number of advantages.
He said as a young man he could help his mother with chores such as replacing a broken light bulb and hanging curtains.
The disadvantages that come with his height include not being able to find suitable clothes or shoes.
He has a custom-made 10-foot bed and shoes that fit his feet – the second largest in the world.
He previously held the world record for having the largest feet of a living person, with his left foot measuring 36.5 cm (1 ft 2 in) and right foot measuring 35.5 cm (1 ft 1.98 in).
But this Guinness World Record was taken by the big-footed Jeison Orlando Rodríguez Hernández, whose feet measure 40.55 cm (1.33 ft) and 40.47 cm (1.32 ft).
Kosen also holds the record for the largest hands on a living person, with each hand measuring 28.5 cm (11.22 in) from the wrist to the tip of the middle finger.
A striking image shows Amge standing on Kosen’s lap as he sat in a chair – but despite stretching high, the world’s smallest woman only reached his collarbone
Last year, a wannabe tallest man tried to claim the title for himself, but official measurements of the man and Kosen quickly determined the winner.
Beanpole Sulemana, 29, gained attention around the world last year after doctors estimated his height at 3 meters 60 at a rural clinic in Ghana, where staff did not have the proper equipment to measure him.
The 29-year-old was later measured and found to be just 7ft tall.
A triumphant Kosen showed off his tallest man certificate in response to the failed attempt to take his title, which he has now held for 15 years.
“I won’t lose my record to anyone,” he proudly told reporters. ‘I am determined.’