‘Little People, Big World’ Star Amy Roloff Explains Reason for Not Inviting Ex-Husband Matt to Wedding

Amy Roloff and Chris Marek might be getting married on Roloff Farms, but the Little People, Big World star did not invite her ex-husband Matt Roloff to the wedding. In the upcoming season finale for the long-running TLC series, Amy explained that she wanted the wedding as stress-free as possible, and she felt inviting Matt would not help. Last year, Amy suggested Matt and his girlfriend, Caryn Chandler, could come to the wedding if they wanted but she believed they would not be interested.

“Chris and I debated whether to invite Matt and Caryn to the wedding, but we decided against it. I think it causes less drama and I think that’s better for everyone,” Amy, 56, explained in a preview clip for the finale published by PEOPLE. The preview also included a confessional with Marek with Matt by his side. He thought it was a “given” that they would invite Matt and Chandler to the wedding, but they decided against it. “But then I saw where it could be awkward for some people that were going to be at the wedding and especially maybe for Amy,” Marek explained.

That rationale sat well with Matt, 59. “We had a conversation and he goes, ‘Are you going to be offended if we don’t invite you to the wedding?’ [I said,] ‘Absolutely not, let’s just take it off the table, make it simple,’” Matt recalled. Although Matt will not be at the wedding, he jokingly said he would be at the honeymoon while Marek laughed.

Elsewhere in the finale, Marek explained that having the wedding at Roloff Farms just made planning easier. “Having the wedding on the farm, it’s making the big day a little easier for me because I’ll be on familiar ground — very familiar ground,” Marek told the cameras with Matt sitting beside him. “You know, and who knows, maybe we’ll come up with some great ideas for you and Caryn for the following year.”

Amy and Marek, 55, announced their engagement in September 2019. They had hoped to get married in 2020, but they postponed the wedding because of the coronavirus pandemic. In an April 2020 interview with Us Weekly, the couple said they would invite Matt and Chandler, 52, if they wanted to come. “They’re welcome if they’d like to come,” Marek told the magazine at the time. “We don’t want anyone coming to our wedding out of obligation. The wedding is supposed to be about good friends and close family. I like Matt; I get along with him fine — and Caryn. But we’re not friends that hang out. We don’t do things together.”

The couple’s wedding is set for later this month. “The BIG day is almost here. 28 days I’ll marry my love, my friend, my partner,” Amy wrote in a July 30 Instagram post. “The one I’ll start and end my day with. Hold hands, kiss, and hug. The one I get to have coffee with, talk to and have those conversations that are easy and hard, take rides and travel with, share faith, hopes, and dreams with and live life together.”

Matt and Amy were married for almost 30 years before finalizing their divorce in 2016. They are parents to sons Jeremy, 31, Zach, 31, Jacob, 24, and daughter Molly, 27. The LPBW season finale airs on TLC Tuesday at 9 p.m. ET.