Olivia Plath’s relationship with estranged husband Ethan Plath wasn’t always easy, but looking back she realized just how toxic it was at times.
“The day we both said we were no longer in the relationship, we were divorced [in my mind],” Olivia, 26, told her sister Lydia Grace in the Tuesday, July 23, episode of Welcome to Plathville. “[We were] moving on separately.”
Olivia, who announced her split from Ethan, 26, in October 2023, insisted that she “gave my marriage everything I had” before pulling the plug.
“I have zero doubts about whether I fought hard enough for it or not,” she told the cameras. “I think I stayed way past the expiration date.”
Welcome to Plathville’s Ethan and Olivia Plath’s Relationship Ups and Downs
Olivia noted that her time away from Ethan and their former apartment in Minnesota has given her clarity. “Now being on my own and feeling like my life is so much more peaceful, it makes me realize how chaotic and dysfunctional that was. And I don’t miss that,” Olivia continued. “Maybe someday I’ll separate it all in my mind. But for right now he’s part of that.”
She claimed: “That was an entire, just, like, my whole world didn’t feel safe.”
Olivia and Ethan were married five years before parting ways. In the season 6 premiere, which aired earlier this month, fans learned that it had been nine months since they broke up. At the time, Ethan was hesitant to sign the divorce paperwork because he was hopeful they could make amends.
‘Welcome to Plathville’: Get to Know the Plath Family
Olivia, meanwhile, was adamant that it was over between them. “I don’t love him romantically, but I still care about him as a person,” she said about Ethan during Tuesday’s episode. “And it’s really hard to try to, like, hold that care and compassion while still being frustrated at the way things turned out and how he’s dragging his feet now. Because I really would just love it to, like, be wrapped up.”
Ethan, for his part, finally told the majority of his family about his and Olivia’s breakup during the episode.
“Well, me and Olivia are getting a divorce. That’s what’s new. We’ve been separated since March or late February,” he shared with his relatives at the Plath family home in Georgia. “I was kinda hoping something maybe would’ve changed after the summer. I’ve asked her if we can give it another go and I guess that’s a no.”
Welcome to Plathville’s Plath Family’s Ups and Downs Through the Years
Ethan — who was in the process of moving out of his and Olivia’s shared apartment — confessed, “The depression that I carry around that haunts me every day, it is there. It’s a pain. I hate it.”
He acknowledged that although he was “very young” and there is “a lot of life ahead of me still,” he didn’t know where to go next.
Olivia, on the other hand, relocated to Los Angeles after their split and is trying to embrace single life.
“When Ethan and I ended our relationship nine months ago, I was 25 and starting life over,” she said in a confessional. “I just didn’t really know where to go and always wanted to live in California, so I moved to Los Angeles for a fresh start.”
Welcome to Plathville airs on TLC Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET.
