Fake News: Obese Couple Did NOT Make Three-Story Fall After Floor Collapses During Sex

Fact Check

  • by: Maarten Schenk
Fake News: Obese Couple Did NOT Make Three-Story Fall After Floor Collapses During Sex

Did Michael Davis and Theresa Walker from Liverpool fall through the floor of their apartment while having sex because they were too fat? No, that's not true, an old hoax went viral again which was originally created by a Canadian website that makes up tales about bizarre crimes and weird sex acts for entertainment purposes. It is not real, it did not happen.

The story originated from an article published by World News Daily Report on October 11, 2017 titled "Obese couple makes three-story fall after floor collapses during sex" (archived here) which opened:

A 640-lbs man and his 450-lbs wife had a rather unusual accident last night as the floor of their apartment collapsed during a particularly intense sexual intercourse, causing the couple to fall three stories lower.

Michael Davis and Theresa Walker from Liverpool were having sex in their bedroom on the third floor of an apartment building when the structure collapsed.

The couple and their bed fell through three floors before bursting through a wall and ending up in a laundry room in the basement of the building.

Emergency services were rapidly called on the site and they were able to extract the unlucky lovers from their uncomfortable position.

Users on social media only would have seen this title, description and thumbnail, making it look like a real news story:

Obese couple makes three-story fall after floor collapses during sex

A 640-lbs man and his 450-lbs wife had a rather unusual accident last night as the floor of their apartment collapsed during a particularly intense sexual intercourse, causing the couple to fall three stories lower. Michael Davis and Theresa Walker from Liverpool were having sex in their bedroom on

The story was copied by Citizens Daily Updates in 2018:

OBESE COUPLE MAKES THREE-STORY FALL AFTER FLOOR COLLAPSES DURING SEX - Daily Trending News

A 640-lbs man and his 450-lbs wife had a rather unusual accident last night as the floor of their apartment collapsed during a particularly intense sexual intercourse, causing the couple to fall three stories lower. Michael Davis and Theresa Walker from Liverpool were having sex in their bedroom on the third floor of an apartment building when the structure collapsed.

It was made popular again by a Facebook page pretending to be the Kenya branch of CNN:

The couple in the picture is not even from Liverpool, it was stolen from an American news story about an obese couple:

Medical emergency motivates couple to lose 538 pounds

(CNN) At work one day, IT consultant Justin Shelton suddenly began to feel ill. A few hours later, he was in the emergency room, and doctors told him he might have a kidney infection. They just needed to run a scan to confirm the diagnosis.

The website World News Daily Report is a well known satire website specialized in posting hoaxes and made up stories. The disclaimer on their website is pretty clear about that even though you have to scroll all the way down the page to find it:

World News Daily Report assumes all responsibility for the satirical nature of its articles and for the fictional nature of their content. All characters appearing in the articles in this website - even those based on real people - are entirely fictional and any resemblance between them and any person, living, dead or undead, is purely a miracle.

It is run by Janick Murray-Hall and Olivier Legault, who also run the satirical Journal de Mourréal, a satirical site spoofing the (real) Journal de Montéal. Very often their stories feature an image showing a random crazy mugshot found in a mugshot gallery on the internet or on a stock photo website superimposed over a background of flashing police lights or crime scene tape.

Articles from the site are frequently copied (sometimes even months or years later) by varous fake news websites that omit the satire disclaimer and present the information as real.

We wrote about worldnewsdailyreport.com before, here are our most recent articles that mention the site:

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  Maarten Schenk

Lead Stories co-founder Maarten Schenk is our resident expert on fake news and hoax websites. He likes to go beyond just debunking trending fake news stories and is endlessly fascinated by the dazzling variety of psychological and technical tricks used by the people and networks who intentionally spread made-up things on the internet.  He can often be found at conferences and events about fake news, disinformation and fact checking when he is not in his office in Belgium monitoring and tracking the latest fake article to go viral.

Read more about or contact Maarten Schenk

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