Ethan and Olivia Plath continue to face challenges in their marriage onWelcome to Plathville.
In PEOPLE’s exclusive sneak peek at Tuesday’s season 5 premiere of the TLC hit,Olivia, 25, worries as herhusband, also 25, prepares to go to Cairo, Georgia — his hometown — for two-and-a-half months to work on cars while she stays behind.
“I’m feeling kind of torn,” she admits in an interview. “I understand the importance of him working on his cars and getting those finished. But I’m not gonna lie and say that, like, I don’t feel nervous or anxious. Living apart from your spouse for two-and-a-half months is honestly really scary. Especially when, you know, there’s a lot of family stuff involved.”
“Welcome to Plathville”: Olivia and Ethan Plath.TLC
TLC
Tentsion between Olivia and the rest of thePlath familyhas been increasing ever since she and Ethan’s sister — and her former best friend —Moriah, 21, had afalling out. Things were already rocky between Olivia and her in-laws as she and Ethan’s motherKim, 51,do not get along.
“Two-and-a-half months is a long time,” she muses out loud to Ethan. “You gonna talk to me while you’re there?”
Ethan promises to call her “every day.”
In an interview, he admits that he needs to make consistent communication with his wife a big priority while he’s away.
“She was like, ‘If you’re dead set on doing this, you have to communicate. You can’t just disappear, because that’s my worst fear. When you go up to Cairo, you get to work on your cars, you’re with your family or whatever, you just cease to communicate,'” he shares.
He adds that Olivia has made it clear that she doesn’t want to have to call his relatives or friends and get them to chase him down “with a telephone like, ‘Ethan! Talk to your wife!’”
“Welcome to Plathville”: Ethan Plath.TLC
Plathvillefans have long speculated about the couple, who tied the knot in Oct. 2018. In addition to their lack of social media posts about each other since early this year, they’ve faced variousrelationship challengeson screen. In 2021, Olivia moved out of their shared home for a time.
“I don’t know what will happen," she said on a previous episode. “I was trying so hard to, like, make the marriage work. But I just realized that as long as I stayed and kind of kept Ethan’s world together, he was able to just ignore everything that was happening.”
However, they managed to work things out and seemed to be going strong in season 4, which finished airing in early August 2022. “When high school sweethearts find each other there isn’t much that can separate us," Ethan wrote onInstagramin September 2022 following a romantic summer in Europe together.
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Welcome to Plathvilleseason 5 premieres on Tuesday, Sept. 5 at 10 p.m. ET on TLC.
source: people.com
