[3] Uribe drew worldwide attention in January 2006, when he made an emotional plea on a Mexican television network that prompted both private and public assistance.

[7] Uribe lived in San Nicolás de los Garza, a suburb of Monterrey, Nuevo León, and according to the Associated Press he weighed 115 kg (254 lb) during his adolescence.

[9] His sedentary lifestyle may have contributed to the onset of his morbid obesity because it appears to be, according to a scientific study published in Clinical Cardiology, one of the major risk factors including a poor diet.

[5] The government appointed a group of doctors and certified nutritionists to help him lose weight,[9] but while he turned down offers for gastric bypass surgery in Italy and Spain,[5] he caught the attention of Barry Sears, the creator of the Zone diet.

Sears prescribed him a diet high in protein and low in carbohydrates[10] that consisted of five meals in small portions that included egg-white omelets, salads, chicken, fish, fruits and spring greens.

Donning a white silk shirt with a sheet around his legs, he waited to greet Claudia as she walked down a flight of stairs wearing a strapless ivory dress and a tiara in front of over 400 guests.