‘Welcome to Plathville’ Star Claims Ex Was Abusive, Threatened Her Before Split

Welcome to Plathville star Olivia Plath is accusing ex-husband Ethan Plath of abuse.

The TLC personality took to Instagram on March 27 to share a video about her alleged experiences with “domestic violence and abuse.”

While Olivia didn’t name Ethan explicitly, she noted that “about a year” before she filed for divorce in February 2024, she began “writing down the things I was experiencing because I knew I wasn’t being treated well,” including one entry that read, “I think I might be experiencing abuse but I’m not sure because I didn’t have bruises.”

“I didn’t think people would believe me,” the 26-year-old continued, alleging that her ex “threatened to shoot [her] friends.”

“He threatened to shoot my friends, that he called out by name, that he thought were influencing me to be more liberal and open-minded,” she claimed. “The morning we broke up, he told me he was buying guns to restore order. Later, he told me, he never bought guns. He just did that to scare me.”

In the caption of the video, she additionally claimed her ex also engaged in “driving erratically and dangerously and refusing to let me leave the vehicle,” all while “previously he flipped a car I was in because he was out of control as the driver and we landed upside down in a ditch in a crushed car.”

Olivia and Ethan announced they had split after five years of marriage in 2023 and filmed the subsequent fallout for TLC’s Welcome to Plathville. Olivia claimed in her Instagram video that viewers “saw half” of what was going on when she returned to Minnesota to get divorce papers signed and “he slammed a chair into the bar, which he slammed things like that and made himself very physically threatening.”

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“But what was cut out and didn’t make it was him looking me in the eye and saying very low, very calm, ‘Be very careful what you say,’” she alleged. After that, Olivia said she made sure cameras were there “for a reason” when she had to see her ex.

“He would back me into corners, he would cuss me out, he would spit on my face and anytime I threatened to call the cops on that, he say, ‘I didn’t hit you, you have nothing on me,’” she claimed.

The photographer explained that she wanted to share her experiences to help other women in similar situations. “Even if you’re not with somebody, you can treat yourself better than that. You deserve better than that,” she said. “I know that the system is not built to support women and it lets women down all the time, but there’s support here on this page and with so many other people in the comments that you can kind that have gone through similar things.” Ethan has not responded publicly to her claims.

If you or someone you know is a victim of domestic violence, you can reach the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233. You can also chat with a representative at thehotline.org​ or by texting “START” to 88788.