Not holding back. Olivia and Ethan Plath have been open on Welcome to Plathville about the ups and downs in their relationship — and it was all worth it.
“Couples therapy was something that I wanted to do all along. Based on where we were in our relationship, that was something that I felt would really benefit us,” Ethan, 23, told Us Weekly exclusively on Monday, August 30, adding that Olivia, also 23, wanted him to go to a therapist solo as well.
“I felt like so many of the things that we dealt with, were both of us speaking out of childhood trauma,” she told Us. “And I thought that if we both went privately, like, personally to therapy, we could deal with all of our own stuff on our own and have more tools [for] coming back and communicating together. But obviously, that was my ideal and that was something Ethan wasn’t comfortable with. So my compromise was just, like, ‘OK, we’ll go to couples therapy.'”
During the TLC series, which is currently in its third season, their tense relationship is placed in the spotlight. Since the show’s debut and Olivia’s falling out with Ethan’s family, the pair have had their fair shares of troubles — many captured by the cameras.
“You definitely will see some things that weren’t there, but I mean, this is a reality TV show,” Ethan told Us. “I like to be as honest as I can and I frankly have a really hard time being anything different than I am. So what you see is what you get, but I would say we’re doing much better than some scenes that you’ll see coming up in the season for a number of reasons — definitely couples counseling, but just where we’re at in life, working through things.”
The blogger went on to say that because they’ve been through so much since marrying in 2018, they’ve finally come out in a good place.
“Our relationship almost had to hit rock bottom for us to kind of wake up, prioritize and actually deal with our own problems,” the photographer told Us. “It really sucked hitting rock bottom. When we started the season, pretty much, like, everything [was] not going well at all and kind of came to a head within the first few weeks. It also means that as uncomfortable as the first few episodes and scenes are going to be, it gets a lot better. It gets worse before it gets better. … We’re in a much better place now.”
Ethan added, “The only good thing about rock bottom is [that] it’s only up from there.”
The pair also spoke to Us about possibly extending their family down the line when the time is right after they do a bit more traveling.
“I feel like our relationship was backwards in some ways where we got married without really knowing each other super young. And now we’re in, like, the getting to know each other dating phase,” she explained. “And so there’s no way I’m going to sacrifice this, especially with all the stuff we’ve been through. I’m not capable of emotionally loving another being well, right now, as I’m working on loving Ethan and myself. We’re happy to wait a little while longer. ”
Welcome to Plathville airs on TLC Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET.
