Welcome to Plathville’s Olivia Plath is opening up about feeling something was off in the early days of her marriage to Ethan Plath — and why she stuck around so long.
“I remember year one of being married, saying to my dad, ‘I think I might want to get divorced,’” Olivia, 27, confessed during the Tuesday, October 14, episode of the “Lovett or Leave It” podcast.
Olivia, who married Ethan, 27, when she was 20 years old, recalled feeling “so overwhelmed with all the family problems” and Ethan’s “inability to set boundaries with his family.”
The former TLC star revealed that she ultimately stayed married four more years because of how her dad, a fundamentalist Christian, reacted to her confession.
“I remember my dad told me, ‘If you get divorced it’s going to break God’s heart and it will break my heart,’” Olivia said, adding that the fear of losing her parents’ support at that time made her think, “I guess I have to figure it out.”
“I look back now and I really could’ve just cut out four years worth of circular conversations that got us nowhere,” she explained. “But I just didn’t want to give up.”
Olivia noted that her split from Ethan in 2023 and the road to being divorced was as tedious as Welcome to Plathville depicted.
Still, she never set out to divorce Ethan. In fact, she wanted to be the couple that defied the odds when they got married so young.
“What I always went back to was, ‘It doesn’t have to be a mistake,’” she said on the podcast. “The percentage of people who get married to the first person they were ever with and then that lasts the rest of your life — that does happen but it’s not all that common, but it does happen.”
Olivia pointed to divorce being “frowned upon” by her religious family and that of her in-laws as a major factor in pushing down her own feelings for so long.
“I also thought I would be blamed for getting divorced,” she claimed.
Olivia married Ethan in October 2018 after being engaged nearly one year. Ahead of their nuptials, Olivia found herself at odds with Ethan’s mother, Kim Plath, who she claimed wanted to control their lives.
“When we were dating, I knew that I was being controlled in what we were allowed to do, what we’re allowed to say,” Olivia exclusively told Us Weekly in August 2021. “I remember the night that it clicked for me was the night we got engaged. We came in the door, [Kim] waited up for us and she, like, grabbed my hand and looked at the ring. And the first thing she said was, ‘Oh, I want to trade rings with you.’ And I was like, ‘OK, that’s really weird.’”
Once they were married, Olivia’s relationship with Ethan’s family grew even more strained. By the time they announced their split in October 2023, Ethan was barely talking to anyone in his family, which he later said was Olivia’s doing.
Olivia and Ethan filed for divorce in February 2024 with the documents revealing their date of separation as February 25, 2023.
Their ups and downs amid their separation played out on season 6 and 7 of the TLC series. During the season 7 finale in September — which marked Olivia’s last episode on the series — Olivia and Ethan were still sorting through how to finalize their divorce.
Despite being vocal over the years about her feelings towards Ethan and his family — and how she was depicted on the show — Olivia said on Tuesday that she thinks the show was “good” for her in the end.
“The show really just picked me up and set me down in the middle of mainstream society,” Olivia said. “And mirrored my own reactions back to me in such a way that I was able to learn.”
She added, “Looking back, I think it was a really good experience for me. I learned a lot,” noting as fans watch her from season 1 to 7, “There’s a clear chart of growth.”
Olivia is now living in Washington, D.C., with boyfriend Brendan. Ethan, meanwhile, went public with his and Teegan Nichols’ relationship in January.