I'm not really villifying him - to be clear, I don't think he was trying to be a jerk. I think he handled it epically poorly, but he's not the only one. Hell my dad got mom a waffle iron for their first valentines day
It's a matter of knowing how to broach this subject. The way he did it, intentionally or not (and it seems, unintentionally) was to tell her over and over that she's fat. You don't have to come right out and SAY that someone is fat, in order to tell them that they're fat.