Ex-‘Welcome to Plathville’ Star Olivia Plath Says TLC Ignored Her DV Allegations Against Ethan Plath
Olivia Plath is speaking out about her ex-husband.
The former Welcome to Plathville star took to Instagram on Thursday to share more details about her relationship with Ethan Plath, and to accuse TLC’s parent company Warner Bros. Discovery of failing to seriously address her concerns when she reported his behavior.
Olivia Plath says Ethan Plath was ‘abusive’
“My ex was abusive,” she wrote in the first of a series of slides recounting her experience during her five-year marriage.
Olivia accused Ethan of driving “recklessly” when she was in the car, backing her “into corners and cuss[ing] me out,” and “drunkenly spitting” on her, as well as stranding her in strange places, constant lying, blocking her car in so that she could not leave their home, and saying “very emotionally damaging things.”
“My last straw came when he threatened to shoot my friends that he didn’t like,” she wrote. “Shortly after making that threat, he picked up the car keys and told me that he was going out to buy guns to ‘restore order.’”
The former TLC personality said she called Ethan’s grandmother, who sent someone to pick her up. She also “brought up this incident in a recorded interview the next day so that there was a record of it … I trusted that my producers would escalate this concern to Discovery network and that things would be handled appropriately. I was wrong.”
‘Welcome to Plathville’ was disappointed in TLC’s response to her allegations
Olivia did not contact the police because she felt there was a “slim chance” she’d be believed. But she was hopeful that the team behind Welcome to Plathville would take action. She was sorely disappointed.
“He was never held accountable,” she alleged. “Discovery kept him on their reality tv show with no consequences. The producers continued working with him and calling him a friend. They came to me and told me that they didn’t believe he truly meant the things he said and did, he was just so angry about losing me and our relationship.”
The wedding photographer claimed that Ethan denied her abuse allegations in a never-aired segment shot for Welcome to Plathville, but that she was never offered the chance to share her side of the story. In response, Olivia sent “a detailed report” to Discovery asking for “a full investigation into problematic cast behavior that included violence, racism and homophobia.”
“Three months later I got a call saying that Discovery had done an internal investigation and that my ex had denied what I said about him so it was all dismissed. They told me, ‘it’s a he-said, she-said,’” she wrote. But according to Olivia, people who could have supported her allegations were never contacted. Meanwhile, Welcome to Plathville continued to film with Ethan, who had moved on to a new relationship. Olivia announced that she’d quit the show in September 2025.
Initially, she said she was reluctant to share her story for fear she would not be believed. But after she came forward, she said she heard from viewers who said they’d found Ethan’s behavior concerning.
“In the end, that was the only solace from my situation,” she wrote. “Other people could see what I was talking about.” She concluded by sharing facts and statistics about domestic violence.
Neither Ethan nor TLC has responded to Olivia’s allegations of domestic violence.
How to get help: In the U.S., call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or text START to 88788.
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