And you believe him. Chris is currently actively demonizing her in his mind and through letters because he wants his happy place back. Always untrustworthy, we especially can’t take anything he says about Barb at face value right now.
Barb seems like the type of person that, in fits of rage or deep sorrow, would reveal stuff like that. Such as if Bob did something bad, and Barb refuses to support him and Chris goes "But you're mommy and daddy and have to love each other", Barb's the kind of woman who would spout back with a line about only marrying him for a stable living environment. Especially after her years and years of slutterly. I think in today's lens that her having 8 other boyfriends isn't out of the ordinary, that was back in the Before Times when stuff like that was reserved for a special class of horrible woman.
Also, regarding Barb's weight, I do think Bob's death was partly responsible, but not because Barb felt any grief.
I think it could have just been simple like Bob, being the man of the house, wanting to eat out more at fast food restaurants for a "good ol' proper meal", where as after he died and they didn't go out as much, Barb just ate the bare necessities and slimmed down really fast. Chris complaining that Barb would demand him to go get her food could have been a desperation thing because whenever Chris would go out (every day apparently) to fast food places, he wouldn't bring her home anything, thus Barb had to command him to.
That's the other nasty thing. As fat as Chris got and how many calories it was to maintain, Barb on the other hand, dropped drastically in weight after Bob died.
Another possible reason is Barb stress-eating from going out all the time with both Bob and Chris. He has mentioned her carrying around half eaten fast food to consume at a later date, specifically in one Chandler family outing that took half the day and to anyone would be stressful. (Rileys Diner incident)
So, she was stuck in the house in which she was unable to cook anything due to her own hoarding, and Chris probably just fed her whenever he could be bothered to get an extra Q-Sand to bring home from his trips to McDonalds. The rest of the time he just tossed her an Ensure and called it a day.
Yeah, it's as simple as Chris just being a narcissistic asshole that won't, or can't, understand that. Since the Chandlers were both a clan, but also distant from one another, he most likely didn't even care to view Barb's eating habits. He probably knows "Animals need to eat every day" and dumping out dry food or cans of soup, while letting the cats go feral to hunt for their food outside could have kept them living well enough.
