Welcome to Plathville star Ethan Plath is reflecting on personal growth in the wake of his divorce from Olivia Plath.
“Same car, same place, same person. April 2024 vs. April 2022,” Ethan, 25, wrote via Instagram on Friday, April 25, alongside side-by-side photos of himself two years apart. “It’s amazing what pain will do to you! So many times this last year I’ve wanted to quit and give up but I haven’t and I think life is making me stronger.”
The post comes two months after Ethan and Olivia, 26, filed joint divorce paperwork, citing an “irretrievable breakdown.” They listed their official date of separation as February 25, 2023, although the pair didn’t announce their split until that October.
“Ethan and I have decided to go our separate ways,” Olivia wrote in an Instagram statement at the time. “I have ambivalent memories of us being 18 years old, innocently dreaming of forever – but the partner you choose is a reflection of the world you want to live in, and at 18 I didn’t know who I was or what kind of life I wanted to create for myself.”
She noted that she’s since begun a “journey of questioning, deconstructing and rebuilding” which she will “continue to prioritize” as she moves forward.
“There were good moments and I want to remember and honor those. We fell in love as children and are going our separate ways as adults. Wiser, older, and braver,” she continued. “Thank you for the good times, Ethan. I wish the best for you.”
Ethan shared his own Instagram statement at the time, noting that both he and Olivia “gave it all we had” to try to make their marriage work.
“It seemed we were constantly pulling each other in opposite directions in life with different goals,” he explained. “I wish Olivia the best in the future ahead. I care for her deeply and always will.”
Ethan and Olivia tied the knot in 2018 after being engaged for nearly one year. Olivia often butted heads with Ethan’s mom, Kim Plath, throughout their relationship.
“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 come 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.’”
She added: “It was just, like, a pattern that she tried to make a lot of decisions for me. I was fresh out of my parents’ house and figuring out who I was, and I didn’t want decisions made for me.”
Olivia said her dynamic with Kim often felt like a “power struggle” during an interview with Teen Vogue earlier this month.
“Looking back on it now, all I wanted was to choose my own life. All I wanted was to be myself and live authentically as who I am,” she said.
Olivia added that it was a struggle for her and Ethan to navigate their conflicting belief systems. Although they were both raised fundamentalist Christians, Olivia has made a point of questioning the fundamentalist teachings as she’s grown up.
“I was 20 and newly married to someone who wasn’t ready to leave fundamentalism behind at the same time as I was questioning fundamentalism,” she told Teen Vogue of her time on Welcome to Plathville. “I had my whole life open for the public to criticize and critique, and I was a kid who grew up so sheltered from the world. To be thrown out in it and have everyone watch me as I’m deconstructing and trying to figure out what being married is all about and dealing with in-law conflict. I look back and I’m like, ‘Sheesh.’ It felt very overwhelming.”
