Welcome to Plathville star Ethan Plath and his wife, Olivia Plath, are still estranged from his parents, Kim and Barry Plath, even though they live less than a mile away from each other. In an interview with PEOPLE, Olivia revealed they remain on a “no-contact basis” with his parents, who have made no attempt to reconcile. In a November episode of the series, Ethan, 22, decided they needed “space as a couple.”
“I know it hasn’t quite aired yet, but I think they have teased it that there is a point at the end of the season where Ethan does talk to his parents and lets them know how he feels about things. And that was a pretty wild little adventure in and of itself,” Olivia, 22, told PEOPLE. “But as of right now, we just decided, you know, we’re on a no-contact basis.” The decision to leave Ethan’s parents behind came after they stopped letting him visit his younger siblings.
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Welcome to Plathville debuted in fall 2019 on TLC and follows the Plath family, who live in a rural area of south Georgia. In addition to Ethan, Kim and Barry are parents to Micah, 19; Moriah, 18; Lydia, 16; Isaac, 14; Amber, 11; Cassia, 9; and Mercy, 7. They have raised their children on a 55-acre farm without access to most modern technology. Kim and Barry are also parents to Hosanna, 21, who lives in Ohio with her husband, Timothy Nobel. In the show’s second season, viewers learned about the family’s frayed relationships, as Micah and Moriah are also renting a house together. Ethan and Olivia also revealed that their parents moved to a home just a few blocks from theirs.
“A lot of times driving, we take a different route than you might expect because a couple months ago I found out my parents moved to Cairo,” Ethan explained, reports PEOPLE. “And I was like,’ Really?’ It’s kind of close. And I found out the house they bought is like practically three blocks up — it’s like 0.3 miles from our house. I mean, I can’t go to the grocery store or go to work without practically driving right by it.” Olivia said she even takes a different route to avoid driving by her in-laws.
At first, Kim and Barry allowed Ethan and Olivia to visit Ethan’s younger siblings, but Olivia said there was a sudden shift last fall. “It really does hurt not being able to see them. That’s really hard, and it’s very, very frustrating,” Ethan said in a November episode. “I have a lot of frustration that I am trying to deal with, like, why am I not allowed to see my siblings unsupervised?”
This week, Olivia told PEOPLE Kim and Barry have not attempted to solve the rift with their son. “When Ethan went no-contact, his parents basically said, ‘Alright, we’re totally fine with that’ and haven’t made any effort to reconcile,” she said. Olivia called their decision the “healthiest and best thing for us,” as it gave them an opportunity to work on their relationship. “And I’m focusing on the rebrand and my business and just trying to do everything I can to make sure I’m in a healthy and happy spot,” she said.
