Tragic female bodybuilding star Christina Bitner dies just days after her 41st birthday as fans and friends pay tribute
Bodybuilder Christina Bitner, who was also a cake artist, had over 95,000 followers on Instagram when she died in Ohio on Sunday.
6
6
6
Her good pal Natalie Prescott confirmed the sad news on Monday, at the request of Christina's husband.
She said: 'It's with a heavy heart that I share the passing of my dear friend of over 27 years.
'Her husband Brent asked me to share this heartbreaking news, knowing how many people loved her and how hard it is right now to find the words.
'We may not understand how this fits into God's plan, but what we do know is that the world lost someone truly special.
'Christina was the kind of friend everyone hopes to have genuine, kind, and full of love for the people around her. She had the biggest heart and the brightest smile.
'Our hearts are completely broken.'
Christina - a stepmother to five - made her final post to her followers at the end of June.
She shared a touching photo of a huge pink birthday cake decorated with a carousel figure and the message: "Gorgeous baby girl cake! So precious!"
The local Justice of the Peace's office in Medina County is yet to reveal the influencer's cause of death.
The release of this information is restricted by law in Ohio.
Bodybuilding star Nikita Tkachuk dead at 35 after pumping body with muscle growth injections he came to bitterly regret
Christina's fans were devastated to learn of her passing.
One fan said: 'I'm in total disbelief! I love Christina, she will be deeply missed.'
Kim added: 'I can't wrap my head around this.'
Fellow influencer Anahi Rosales said: 'I woke up with my heart in pieces, praying it had all been a bad dream, but reality hit hard.'
As well as showing off her cake-making skills, Christina was a member of the International Federation of Bodybuilding (IFBB) professional league.
She leaves behind her husband Brent and her five stepchildren.
Another famous bodybuilder died in May at 35 after pumping himself with "muscle growth" shots, which led to organ failure.
Nikita Tkachuk, from Russia, saw his muscles balloon to gross proportions under the chemical boosters - but a strict contract meant he wasn't allowed to stop.
The bodybuilder was rushed to intensive care with lung and kidney failure, and was later put into a medically-induced coma after suffering a heart attack.
6
6
6
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
27 minutes ago
- The Independent
More celebrities voice outrage at The Late Show axing
CBS has announced the cancellation of its long-running franchise The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, with its final season set to conclude in May 2026. The network stated the decision was a 'financial decision' and not related to the show's performance or content, despite describing Colbert as 'irreplaceable'. The announcement has sparked widespread outrage among the public and high-profile figures, including actors Adam Scott and Ben Stiller, and Senator Elizabeth Warren. Senator Warren and others have questioned CBS's motives, suggesting the cancellation might be linked to Colbert's recent on-air criticism of Paramount's $16 million settlement with Trump. Fellow late-night host Jimmy Kimmel, along with other celebrities and public figures, have expressed strong support for Colbert and dismay at the network's decision.
The Independent
27 minutes ago
- The Independent
Discovery 'Shark Week' has breaching great whites, looks back at 'Jaws' and starts with some dancing
Fifty years ago, 'Jaws' unlocked dread in millions about man-eating sharks. This summer, that fear may be somewhat reduced as they become contestants on a TV dance show. Former 'Dancing With the Stars' host Tom Bergeron steps up for a marketing masterstroke by Discovery Channel's 'Shark Week' — 'Dancing with Sharks,' where humans and 20-foot-long hammerhead sharks do a little mambo. 'I had a decade and a half experience of hosting a dance show, but this one was different,' Bergeron tells The Associated Press. 'I'd often thought on 'Dancing With the Stars,' wouldn't it be great if we could incorporate another species? And here I've finally got my dream come true.' In the show, five scuba-diving shark handlers use bait to twirl and guide various sharks into mini-waltzes, in what's being billed as 'the world's most dangerous dance competition.' One contestant wraps his arms around a nerf shark and spoons it. Another takes off her air tank and does a double backflip. A third — a hip-hop loving shark handler — does an old school head spin on the ocean floor as sharks swirl. 'These are some of the best shark handlers in the world. These are people who know the nuances of sharks, know how they move, know how to behave, know how to safely move with them, and they're guiding these sharks along as you would a partner,' says Kinga Philipps, a TV correspondent and one of the three judges. 'It is so fluid and beautiful, all they really had to do is put a little bit of music to it and they're actually dancing.' It's a shark-a-thon 'Dancing with Sharks' kicks off the week of programing, which includes shows on how to survive a shark attack, why New Smyrna Beach in Florida has earned the title of 'The Shark Attack Capital of the World' and whether a mysterious dark-skinned shark off the coast of California is a mako, mutant or possibly a mako-and-great white hybrid. The seven nights of new shows — and a related podcast — ends off the Mozambique coast with a once-a-year feeding frenzy that turns into a showdown between the sharks and their massive prey, the giant trevally. One highlight is Paul de Gelder's 'How to Survive a Shark Attack,' which he has intimate knowledge about. He lost his right hand and leg in 2009 during an attack by a bull shark in Sydney Harbor. 'If you're in the jaws of a shark, you want to fight for all of your life. You want to go for the soft parts. You want go for the eyeball. You want to go for the gills,' he says. 'But if you're not being attacked by a shark and you're just encountering a shark, then you just want to remain calm.' De Gelder debunks one myth: Punching a charging shark will stop its attack. 'If you really want to hurt your own hand, go ahead,' he says. A better approach is to not thrash about and gently redirect the animal. 'The secret I got taught many years ago was don't act like food and they won't treat you like food.' 'Shark Week' has become a key part of the summer holiday TV schedule, a place where humans safe on land can see ancient apex predators unnervingly glide into view and snap open their jaws. This year's highlights also include the hunt for a 20-foot great white that can leap into the air — 'Air Jaws: The Hunt for Colossus' — and a show about male and female great whites competing in a series of challenges to determine which sex is the superior predator, naturally called 'Great White Sex Battle.' Joseph Schneier, senior vice president of production and development at Discovery, says the shows are born from listening to what the diving and science community is seeing, like pro divers moving artistically with the sharks as they fed them, leading to 'Dancing With Sharks.' 'We realized, well, there's something here that we can go further with,' he says. 'We're lucky that sharks continue to surprise us. Which helps us get kind of new stories and new things to focus on. That's been the mantra for us — the sharks are the stars, not the humans.' As always, there is a deep respect for the creatures and strong science beneath the amusing titles, sharky puns, dramatic music and racy titles like 'Frankenshark' and 'Alien Sharks: Death Down Under.' 'It's like putting your vegetables in a dessert,' says Bergeron. 'You get all the allure of a 'Dancing With Sharks' or other specific shows, but in the midst of that you do learn a lot about sharks and ecology and the importance of sharks in the ecosystem. It's all in your strawberry sundae.' Discovery's 'Shark Week' has a rival — National Geographic's 'SharkFest,' which also has hours of sharky content. There's also the unconnected shark horror comedy 'Hot Spring Shark Attack' and a movie earlier this summer that added a serial killer to a shark movie — 'Dangerous Animals.' Born from 'Jaws' 'Shark Week' was born as a counterpoint for those who developed a fear of sharks after seeing 'Jaws.' It has emerged as a destination for scientists eager to protect an animal older than trees. ''Jaws' helped introduce this country and this world to a predator we're all fascinated with,' says Schneier. 'But we also feel 'Jaws' went too far. These are not creatures that are out to hurt humans by any means, but they have had 50-plus million years of evolution to get to this place where they are just excellent predators. It's fun to celebrate just how good they are at their job.' Kendyl Berna, who co-founded the ecology group Beyond the Reef, and is a veteran on 'Shark Week,' says studying the ancient beasts can teach humans about changes to the planet. 'So much of the programming this year speaks to what's happening with the rest of the world — climate change and how much that affects where sharks are and when they're there and what they're eating,' she says. 'As a keystone apex predator, sharks do set the tone for what's happening.' Bergeron says being a part of 'Shark Week' for the first time and meeting some of the divers who interact with sharks has actually made him braver. 'I don't think I'm at a point where I could go down there with them and have the sharks swirling around me without a cage. But with a cage, I think I am ready to do that,' he says. 'Just don't tell my wife.'
Daily Mail
28 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
The REAL reason Chloe Sims is still not on speaking terms with sisters Demi and Frankie as bitter family feud rumbles on
The real reason behind Chloe Sims bitter two year feud with her sisters Demi and Frankie has been revealed. Chloe, 43, Frankie, 30, Demi, 28, their brother Charlie, 33, and his fiancée Georgia Shults, also 33, ventured to LA to film their own reality show House of Sims in 2023. However, only a couple of series in a big brawl between the sisters played out on-screen and led to Demi and Frankie jetting back to the UK and removing all traces of their siblings off Instagram. Two years on, it seems the trio are still not on speaking terms, and it could be down to Chloe's closeness with her brother Charlie's fiancée Georgia. A source told The Sun: 'Frankie and Demi feel like they have been replaced by Georgia. 'It's as if Chloe and Georgia are sisters now, and Frankie and Demi are strangers to them. Frankie and Demi basically felt like they were pushed out, and Chloe has no time for them anymore. 'They expected this fallout to have been resolved by now, but Chloe's closeness with Georgia has only made the gulf between the sisters even wider.' MailOnline has contacted Chloe, Frankie and Demi's representatives for comment. In 2024, Demi explained that the argument stemmed from admin and money. Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, she said: 'My side was that there was an argument over the Wi-Fi bill because we all needed our names of the bill to get credit to live in LA... 'Charlie, Chloe and Georgia all went out to put their names on and me and Frankie were left in the dark a little bit. Me, Charlie, Chloe and Frankie were all paying evenly for this house and Georgia wasn't paying... 'We felt like "why is Georgia getting the credit and we're not?" So that's what it came from, which I feel was a fair argument.' Telling her side of the story, the TV star remarked when her sister Frankie, 28, and Charlie, 31, had the argument she did 'try to stay out of it' despite the argument involving her too. Yet the quarrels increased tensions between the siblings, at which point some 'teams' within the family where formed. 'But in the end they had already formed a team, so I obviously did take Frankie's side because it was morally wrong,' Demi said. 'So that is my side, I'm a fair person and I'll always say what's wrong and what's right and in my eyes that wasn't right.' Meanwhile, Chloe told MailOnline that she's 'deeply hurt' by her family's 'heartbreaking' fallout. Chloe quit TOWIE after 12 years and relocated from her beloved Brentwood in Essex to Los Angeles after her family's reality series was signed to OnlyFans channel OFTV. But the 'pressure' of moving overseas and setting up a new life has impacted her close family more than Chloe could have ever imagined, with the TV personality admitting during her darkest days she even threatened to quit Hollywood and fly back home. Chloe revealed the extent of their feud and how she was 'shocked' by her sister's unforgivable remarks, which has left her feeling tense and isolated. She said: 'The show was an incredible opportunity but, in a way, it has come with some downfalls. It has caused a big rift with my sisters. We are not on talking terms today. 'We haven't spoken since they left LA and that would have been in October/November time. I have not seen or spoken to them since so filming series three will be awkward. 'To hear some of the things they said to me was really heartbreaking and I genuinely wasn't expecting it... I was shocked to be honest. 'This is not a comfortable subject for me at all… They are obviously my little sisters but things that have gone down and things that have been said, I'm not going to repeat them, but things have hurt me deeply. 'I find it very difficult to get over things when it's gone too far so I don't know what the future holds but we're locked into another two seasons, and we have to go ahead with it... in the meantime, I'm on my own... but I do have Charlie.'
