Jillian Michaels

Jillian once mentioned in a Pride Source interview with Chris Azzopardi that she realised she was bisexual at around 18 years of age and only later in her 20s she realised that she was gay. At present she is romantically associated with a woman called Heidi Rhoades. In May 2012 they adopted a two year old girl from Haiti while on the same month Rhoades gave birth to a boy.

She became part of controversy a few times including the one when some of her products were tagged as ineffective or dangerous leading to four separate lawsuits which were later dismissed. She also faced the wrath of law enforcement officers and their families after speaking her mind against police on the July 28, 2012 episode ‘Jillian Finds Gratefulness in a Personal Loss’ of her podcast. The episode was later removed from the iTunes feed of the show.

Jillian is associated with many charitable organisations like ‘Stand Up to Cancer’, ‘Hope for Haiti’, the Clinton Foundation's Alliance for a Healthier Generation and NFL's Play 60 among others. She took part in the inaugural ‘Health Matters: Activating Wellness in Every Generation’ conference of Clinton Foundation in January 2012.

She was born on February 18, 1974, in Los Angeles, California, US to lawyer Douglas McKarus and JoAnn and grew up in Santa Monica.

Jillian had a somewhat troubled childhood coping up with several issues including divorce of her parents, night terrors and of course her overweight that led her to face verbal abuse from classmates.

She later thrived in overcoming her obesity by losing those extra kilos and in course of time became a personal trainer herself. She supported her own studies while attending California State University, Northridge by working as personal trainer and bartender.

A Black belt holder, this drop-dead gorgeous diva with an enviably toned body holds two personal training certificates since 1993, one from AFAA and the other from NESTA. She also has a certificate with the American Fitness Professionals and Associates (AFPA) as a nutrition and wellness consultant; and is Kettlebell Concepts certified as well.

Her initial career saw her working for a while with talent and literary agency ‘International Creative Management’ in capacity of an agent.

Along with AFAA, Jillian has come up with an ongoing series for trainers. While training her clients, she applies a mix of strength training process that encompasses weight training, kickboxing, plyometrics, Pilates and yoga.

She came up with Sky Sport & Spa, a sports medicine facility, in Beverly Hills in 2002.

Jillian featured as a trainer of the American competition reality show ‘The Biggest Loser’ starting from its inception on NBC in October 2004. The show that features overweight participants contesting to lose maximum weight to win a cash prize saw Jillian featuring in its first two seasons as trainer of Red Team. She quit the show in 2006 with Kim Lyons taking her place.