Olivia Plath is finally talking about her experiences with fundamentalist Christianity and her life with Ethan Plath. The show Welcome to Plathville is about the Plath family, who identify as fundamentalist Christians, and it airs on TLC.
Right from the start, the audience is introduced to Olivia. It kicks off with her wedding to Ethan Plath, and much of the show follows her journey.
Olivia married Ethan when they were both young. Throughout the seasons, viewers can start to see cracks begin to form in their relationship. There was a lot of tension in their relationship because Olivia was having doubts about her religion and her marriage.
RELATED: ‘Welcome to Plathville’ Ethan and Olivia Plath Divorce Update
Olivia sat down with Teen Vogue to talk about her experience on the show and how much her life has changed since then. Her story begins with her family finding a fundamentalist church and joining it. Life for her changed overnight.
One day, she was wearing tank tops with flowers on them, and the next day, she had to wear dresses that went down to her knee. Life became more strict, but since she was young, she was able to adjust to the new rules.
That said, Olivia said she was always a stubborn and curious girl. Her tendency to question things would ultimately lead to her divorce.
Olivia Got MArried When She Was Only 20 Years Old
Before then, however, she was the daughter of a pastor who preached for a fundamentalist church sect, something she now considers a cult. She met Ethan at a conference, and they began to date long-distance. They were allowed to write letters to each other and have an hour-long phone call every three months.
Olivia was also able to see the world a bit due to her photography business. So, she had some exposure to the wider world outside of her church and community.
When she was 20, she and Ethan got married, and she joined the show. From the start, Olivia questioned fundamentalism, especially with how the Plaths viewed it. They were even more conservative than her own family, and that made the transition a bit more difficult.
RELATED: Who is Olivia Plath’s New Boyfriend
When 2020 struck, and the world grappled with COVID-19 and the George Floyd murder, Olivia’s eyes were really opened. The church, and the Plath family, didn’t seem to take these issues that seriously.
The community she was in looked at her weird if she chose to wear a mask. If anyone voted anything besides Republican, you’d become the talk of the town.
She started to question her place in the world and wondered if she had any value as a woman besides being a wife and mother. When she decided that her value was more than just those two things, she started to question fundamentalist Christianity as a whole.
Olivia Is Having to Rebuild Her Worldview
She realized that it was built with the patriarchy in mind, and it was the patriarchy that was behind a lot of the social issues that the world has today. No longer satisfied to be what men told her she should be, she set out to divorce her husband.
While Ethan had briefly been swayed to be more open with his views, he eventually returned to the conservative viewpoints of his family. The two had different plans for raising children.
So, Olivia divorced him and moved to Los Angeles. She’s spent the last few years trying to put her own worldview together after dismantling her old one.
RELATED: How Joy-Anna Broke Free
As for the Plaths and fundamentalist Christianity, she said that it tends to have a lot of skeletons in the closet. Since, at its heart, fundamentalist Christianity is all about showing the perfect family when a fundamentalist family is given a platform, the viewers don’t always see the cracks.
Olivia said the one good thing about the Welcome to Plathville show is that it sometimes showed family arguments. However, there are far more skeletons in the closet that the show didn’t expose.
As for what those skeletons are, Olivia isn’t quite ready to divulge those secrets yet. For now, she’s focused on rebuilding her life, dating, and being curious about the world. All things that her fundamentalist upbringing denied her.
