By Brian Zanzonico
Weighing more than 220 pounds at the time, the Franklin Square resident was chosen among thousands of hopefuls as one of the cast members of the weight loss reality show last year. The Massachusetts native's goal was to slim down for her wedding to 1994 H. Frank Carey High School graduate Mike Ruocco.
Mission accomplished. Last Sunday, more than 70 pounds thinner than before the show, Mendonca wed Ruocco at St. Catherine of Sienna Church before 100 relatives, friends and staff members of the Maury Povich Show. Three days later, they set sail on a nine-day Caribbean cruise.
It capped off a wild two years for the couple, both New York City police officers who met on orientation day after graduating from the academy. Ruocco, immediately attracted to Mendonca, approached her and initiated small talk. When Mendonca told the Franklin Square resident she lived in nearby East Meadow, Ruocco said that since they were in the same precinct, it would only make sense that they carpooled. Soon after, the two began dating. Months later, they worked at Ground Zero together after 9/11 and side by side at Fresh Kills landfill in Staten Island. Several years later, Mendonca was in a serious car accident while on duty. While seated in the passenger seat of a parked patrol car, a person driving a stolen car hit into it, ejecting Mendonca out of the passenger's door. She sustained fractures of the arm and a herniated disc. Out of work for months, Mendonca said she ate to pass the time and put on 60 pounds. She also became a fan of the NBC reality show "The Biggest Loser," in which obese people strive to lose the most amount of weight to win a six figure cash prize.
At the time, NBC was casting for the second season of the hit show and Mendonca wanted in. She stood four hours in line when auditions were in Times Square. But before she had a chance to prove she deserved a spot, producers ended the casting call. But Mendonca persevered. She snuck her way into Rockefeller Center and into an audition. Hopefuls were seated in a room and had 30 seconds to tell producers why they deserved a spot on the show.
"Most of them were like, Hi I'm Jane and I'm fat," Mendonca said. "I was thinking, I'm so much cooler than these people and I don't want this size 25 body anymore."
Mendonca, a blonde with mesmerizing crystal blue eyes, had a hook. She was engaged and wanted to look stunning in her wedding dress. She told producers she wanted to be a "hot bride." Producers liked Mendonca's spunk and bubbly personality and pushed her through to the next audition in Semi Valley, California. But before she left, she quit her job in the NYPD.
"She had to get on the show," Ruocco said. "She had no job to go back to."
Mendonca became part of the cast and remained in California from March 2005 to June 2005. She didn't have contact with Ruocco the entire time, which made her homecoming sweet when she was voted off the show in the fifth episode.
"I told her, I loved you before the show, during the show and I'll love you after the show," Ruocco said about the first time he saw his fiancee after she lost 87 pounds.
Mendonca, an athlete in college, suffered stress fractures in her feet shortly after beginning the intense workout regimen on the show. But after producers told her the injuries would prevent her from continuing, she gritted through it and never complained to them about it again.
Despite an early exit from the show, Mendonca shed 87 pounds. She also was rehired by the NYPD. Healthier and more fit than she has been in years, she says she owes it all to the man for whom she worked so hard to be a "hot bride."
"Michael is unbelievable," she said. "Not too many guys would say go and do it."
Portions of the wedding will air on "The Maury Povich Show" this fall. The show covered the cost of the couple's reception at Tavern on the Green in Central Park.
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