Parental supervision? Ethan Plath has been vocal about his issues with his parents after marrying Olivia Plath in 2018 — but now his mom, Kim Plath, is getting in the way of his relationships with his siblings.
In Us Weekly’s exclusive clip from the Tuesday, August 31, episode of Welcome to Plathville, Ethan, 22, freaks out when his mom inserts herself into a meeting he set up with younger sister Lydia Plath.
“I don’t know why she has to be like that,” he tells his wife, 23, while reading a text from Lydia, 17. In the message, his sister claims that their mother, 48, needs the family car so the only way she can stop by is if their mom drives her.
Ethan previously ran into Lydia at the garage where he’s been fixing up his car after going “months and months” without seeing her.
“I thought she would just drive herself over here. I don’t want my mom to be anywhere around here,” the mechanic tells Olivia, who tries to calm him down. “I don’t think that my mom ‘has’ to bring her here. It’s her little power move in a deal.”
Ethan, who is the eldest of nine children, admits during a confessional interview that the tension between him and his mom is deep.
“My mom really expects everyone else to bend over for whatever she wants and she will not do the same for you. That’s one of the big reasons I don’t communicate with her,” he explains in the clip. “I don’t know why that’s so complicated and she can’t understand that. I’m totally not OK with putting up with that anymore.”
In a surprising turn of events, Olivia, who has been open about wanting to move away from Ethan’s family, agrees to let Kim stop by — but there are conditions.
“She can’t hurt us by dropping Lydia off,” the photographer tells her husband, suggesting Kim wait at the end of the driveway. While Ethan really doesn’t want “that lady on my property,” Olivia insists that it would be good to see his sister.
“I haven’t seen Ethan’s little siblings in a year and a half,” Olivia tells the camera. “And I do wish I could be a part of their life.”
Ethan’s brother Micah Plath previously told Us that his parents’ issues with his eldest sibling date back to Ethan and Olivia’s 2018 nuptials.
“I think a lot of it was my mom trying to make it her wedding almost,” the model, 20, said earlier this month. “It was at her place. She had what she wanted to do. She’s just, you know, really excited, and I feel like that happens a good amount of times, but she probably went a little overboard and Olivia definitely felt that way.”
Olivia, for her part, commented on the “toxic” relationship she appears to have with Ethan’s family during an Instagram Q&A in August.
“The show has not been toxic for me. The only toxic thing was having to continue a relationship we didn’t want with my in-laws for the sake of the show,” she responded to one fan when asked why she is still on the TLC series. “So we decided to do what was best for us and continue contact.”
She added that the couple are “much happier” after distancing themselves from the group.
Welcome to Plathville airs on TLC Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET.
