Real Life

Real Life: I’m the fastest talker in the world!

Self-confessed motormouth Fran can speak 603 words a minute.
Loading the player...

There’s no denying most women love to talk, but hats off to any lady who can keep up with New York mum Fran Capo.

For the past 32 years, Fran, 59, has proudly held the Guinness World Record for the world’s fastest-speaking woman.

Astoundingly, she can churn out 11 words in one second, which certainly saves her a lot 
of time on idle chitchat!

Fran at the Guinness museum in New York City. (Image credit: FranCapo.com)

“It’s funny the way people react when I talk really fast,” laughs the mum-of-one. “A lot 
of the time they look at me and go, ‘Huh?'”

Fran, who’s also a stand-up comedian, motivational speaker and the author of 19 books – she also holds the world record for the highest elevation for a book signing – tells Woman’s Day she’s been talking fast for more than 30 years.

“It all started when I was working at a radio station in New York doing the weather and traffic as this character June East,” recalls Fran.

Fran with infant son (Image credit: FranCapo.com)

“A reporter from a local newspaper called and asked me how long I’d been doing it [talking fast]. Then she asked me what I was planning on doing next. I didn’t have a next, 
so I blurted, ‘Oh, I’m thinking 
of breaking a world record.'”

After buying a Guinness World Records book, the self-confessed motormouth was intrigued at the fastest-talking record sitting at 552 words a minute.

“I figured, what the heck! I’ll go for that,” she says.

“It was printed in the paper, and the next day 
a TV show asked me to go on 
air and break the world record. So I did,” she says, smiling.

Related stories