I DESERVE LOVE AND NOW I'VE FOUND IT!

After living like a recluse because of a rare deformity, this American man is happily married

- LESEGO MKHIZE

HE’S never tasted the food, spoken or taken a breath unaided. Born without a jaw due to a rare congenital disorder, Joseph Williams (41) is accustomed to being stared at and mocked mercilessly.

Joseph, who was given up for adoption by his birth mother when he was a baby, assumed he’d live his life as a single man.

Bullying, loneliness and depression were all he knew – until he started believing in himself and realised he too deserved a chance at love and happiness.

“I had such low self-esteem and felt worthless, so dating was hard for me. But once I started changing my mindset, I ended up finding my wife.”

Joseph has a condition known as Otofacial syndrome, which is caused by a mutated gene and means he has no mandible and no lower half to his face.

The mandible is the largest bone in the human skull. It forms the lower jawline, holds the lower teeth in place, and creates the chin.

A few days after he was born, he had multiple operations as surgeons constructed a jaw for him using bone and skin grafts.

“But as I grew my body rejected it and it was unsuccessful,” he says.

Joseph is sharing his story so he can tell others who struggle with being different that they too deserve joy in life.

The Chicago-based welder’s life changed when he met Vania (39), the woman he would go on to marry, at work in 2019.

“We got talking and she admitted thinking I was a gang member and that that was probably how I lost my jaw,” he recalls, speaking in sign language.

“We were friends at first but we eventually started dating and fell in love.”