Zach Strenkert made an appearance on The Jerry Springer Show when I was just a year old, and I’m willing to wager that some of you weren’t even born yet. When his parents put the 70-pound infant on the well-known chat show back in 1996, he was reportedly the talk of the town. Additionally, the video has gone viral in recent years, despite the fact that the show broadcast long before social media.
However, viewers today are unaware that Zach, who is currently 29 years old, has Simpson-Golabi-Behmel Syndrome (SGBS), a rare genetic illness. Due to the disease, he gained 2.5 pounds every two weeks and grew an inch, reaching a reported weight of 70 pounds at the age of 17 months.
The Netflix documentary Jerry Springer: Fights, Camera Action, which was just released, has given viewers a better understanding of how bizarre the television program was. Zach claimed he ‘felt like a circus act’ after making appearances on shows like Oprah and Inside Edition while growing up in Port Jervis, New York.
“They presented me as different, which only separated me further from everyone else,” he stated to The Mirror. “I was referred to as the TV kid.”
“Nowadays, people ask me what it was like. They assume my mom was chasing fame or money, but that wasn’t the case.” he continued to say. “We just wanted help with geneticists, which wasn’t easy to come by with our insurance.” Zach said his family wanted to raise awareness on what it was like to live with SGBS, adding: “We didn’t really get a lot of take-home pay after all the affairs were done. It was strictly to make sure that her kid was okay.”
Speaking about the documentary, Zach admitted: “It’s just a spin on what’s already out there. It didn’t reveal anything new. It’s the same content, just packaged with bells and whistles.” Zach, who used to weigh 485 pounds, is now concentrating on his physical well-being. From 1991 until 2018, Jerry Springer headlined The Jerry Springer Show for 27 years.
In 2023, the television host died at his Chicago home. “Jerry’s ability to connect with people was at the heart of his success in everything he tried whether that was politics, broadcasting or just joking with people on the street who wanted a photo or a word.” said family spokesperson, Jene Galvin, at the time, who also confirmed he’d died from pancreatic cancer. “He’s irreplaceable and his loss hurts immensely, but memories of his intellect, heart and humour will live on.”
