Rumeysa Gelgi holds Jyoti Amge as the world’s tallest and shortest women meet at the Savoy Hotel in London on Wednesday. Photo by Guinness World Records
Nov. 23 (UPI) — The world’s shortest and tallest women alive officially became icons while meeting on Guinness World Record Day for afternoon tea in London.
Jyoti Amge, who stands 2 feet, 0.7 inches tall and is from India, and Rumeysa Gelgi, who stands 7 feet, 0.7 inches tall and is from Turkey, met at the Savoy Hotel in London to celebrate World Record Day and share their different perspectives on the world while enjoying tea.
The two women have a height difference of 5 feet but got along very well, Guinness World Records announced Wednesday.
“Guinness World Records is all about celebrating differences,” Craig Glenday, editor-in-chief, Guinness Book of World Records, said.
“By bringing together these two unique women with very different perspectives on life,” Glenday said. “They can learn a lot about each other and we can learn a lot about them and about the world around us.”
The pair exchanged gifts and received certificates officially recognizing them as global icons.
GWR’s 2025 edition of its World Records book includes a new category called “GWR Icons,” and the two women are among the first to be honored as such.
“It’s been wonderful,” Gelgi, 27, said of her meeting with Amge, 30. “She’s the most gracious lady. I’ve been waiting to meet her for along while.”
Despite their obvious differences in height, Gelgi said she has a lot in common with Amge.
“We both love self-care, makeup [and] doing our nails,” she said.
Amge likewise enjoyed their time together.
“I’m really grateful to meet the world’s tallest woman,” she said. “Rumeysa has a good nature — very good.”
Amge has achondroplasia, which is a bone-growth disorder that affects the cartilage that affects the cartilage in developing fetuses that eventually becomes their arms and legs.
Although she is the world’s shortest living woman, Amge also is a media personality and actress who played the role of Ma Petite in “American Horror Story: Freak Show” in 2014.
Gelgi is the world’s 27th person to be diagnosed with Weaver syndrome, which the Cleveland Clinic says is a rare genetic condition that causes bone overgrowth.
Gelgi previously was featured in “Rumeysa: Walking Tall,” which is a documentary in which she traveled across the United States while meeting other world record holders.
