Ethan and Olivia Plath continue to face challenges in their marriage Welcome to Plathville.
In PEOPLE’s exclusive sneak peek at Tuesday’s season 5 premiere of the TLC hit, Olivia, 25, worries as her husband, also 25, prepares to head to Cairo, Georgia — his hometown — for two and a half months to work on the car while she stays behind.
“I feel kind of torn,” he admits in the interview. “I understand how important it is for him to work on his cars and get them done. But I’m not going to lie and say that I don’t, like, feel nervous or anxious. Living apart from your spouse for two and a half … half a month is really scary. Especially when is, you know, a lot of family stuff involved.”
“Welcome to Plathville”: Olivia and Ethan Plath.
TLC
Tensions between Olivia and the rest of the Plath family have been rising since she and Ethan’s sister — and her former best friend — Moriah, 21, fell out. Things were already complicated between Olivia and her mother-in-law because she and Ethan’s mother, Kim, 51, don’t get along.
“Two and a half months is a long time,” she thinks aloud to Ethan. “Are you going to talk to me while you’re there?”
Ethan promises to call her “every day”.
‘Welcome to Plathville’: Barry Plath suggests Olivia is ‘brainwashing’ his son Ethan (Exclusive)
In an interview, he admits that consistent communication with his wife must be a high priority while he is away.
“She said, ‘If you’re determined to do this, you have to communicate. You can’t just disappear, because that’s my biggest fear. When you go to Cairo, you start working on your cars, ‘with your family or whatever, you just stop communicating.’ “, he shares.
He adds that Olivia made it clear she didn’t want to call his relatives or friends and have them chase him “on the phone like, ‘Ethan! Talk to your wife!'”
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“Welcome to Plathville”: Ethan Plath.
TLC
Plathville fans have long speculated about the couple, who tied the knot in October 2018. Apart from not posting about each other on social media since the beginning of this year, they have faced various challenges in their on-screen relationship. In 2021, Olivia moved out of their shared home for a while.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” she said in the previous episode. “I tried so hard, like, to make the marriage work. But I just realized that as long as I stayed and held Ethan’s world together, he could just ignore everything that was going on.”
‘Welcome to Plathville’ Olivia Plath opens up about her history with Kim — and their first fight
However, they were able to work things out, and in Season 4, which ended airing in early August 2022, they seemed to be able to work things out. “When high school sweethearts find each other, there’s nothing that can keep us apart,” Ethan wrote on Instagram in September 2022 after a romantic summer in Europe together.
Olivia appeared to set the record straight on the split rumors in June 2023 when she directly responded in the comments section of an Instagram post claiming that she and Ethan were on the verge of a divorce. “There’s a lot of speculation, but if Ethan and I had something to share, we would,” she wrote.
Welcome to Plathville’s Olivia opens the story of moving away from Ethan’s parents, starting a family
Then in July, she shared a story on Instagram where the two attended a dinner together. Ethan sat to her left in the photo, which was accompanied by a heart and hand emoticon. Representative for Welcome to Plathville he declined to comment at the time. Last month, they attended the wedding of the Plath family and were seen in a photo together.
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Welcome to Plathville season 5 premieres Tuesday, September 5 at 10:00 PM ET on TLC.
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