Olivia Plath of ‘Welcome to Plathville’ Bought an Illegal Gun Ahead of the 2016 Election in Case Hillary Clinton Won
Olivia Plath was prepared for the worst.
In her first interview since leaving TLC’s Welcome to Plathville, Olivia sat down with Crooked Media’s Lovett or Leave It podcast to discuss her experience with reality TV, the breakdown of her marriage, and leaving her fundamentalist Christian upbringing behind. She also spoke about how being raised in a sheltered environment affected her outlook on the world, including the fear she felt around the 2016 presidential election.
Olivia Plath was raised in a ‘fear-based’ environment
Like her ex, Ethan Plath, Olivia was raised by conservative parents who shielded her from mainstream media and culture. Not only did she have little exposure to movies, TV, and music, but she also had what she now sees as biased ideas about politics.
“It’s very fear-based,” she said.
Olivia’s fear was so deep-rooted she took steps to protect herself ahead of the election in case Hillary Clinton triumphed over Donald Trump.
“I mean, I know I’ve talked a little bit on social media about this, but I bought my first gun when I was 17 years old,” she shared. “I wasn’t legally old enough to buy a gun. I gave my brother some cash and he bought it under the table. And it’s ’cause my parents were telling us that if Hillary won the election, she was gonna turn the military on American people. And we’ve gotta stand up for ourselves.”
“That constant fear, um, I guess I kind of assumed that everybody lived and operated under that fear,” she continued. “Just of the different sides. I was never quite sure how much of it to buy into. Obviously enough to buy an unregistered handgun.”
“I just kind of assumed that anyone who didn’t live the way that I grew up was in the wrong,” Olivia said. “Yeah. I was reading one of my old journals the other day and I was a very judgmental person.”
‘Welcome to Plathville’ considered divorcing Ethan after just one year of marriage
Olivia has since distanced herself from her upbringing and embraced a more open-minded outlook. That brought her into conflict with Ethan, who drifted even further to the right during their marriage. Earlier this year, she accused him of making violent comments and threatening to shoot her friends because they turned her into a liberal.
The reality TV alum said she shared recordings of some of her troubling conversations with Ethan so that people could see the parts of her relationship that weren’t seen on Welcome to Plathville.
“I felt like there was a missing piece of the story on reality TV,” she said. “That was very much network driven of ‘What are we not gonna talk about? Politics. We’re not gonna talk about politics.’”
Olivia said that there were red flags in her marriage early on. But even as she and Ethan grew apart and their dynamic became increasingly dysfunctional, Olivia was reluctant to leave.
“Like I remember year one of being married and saying to my dad, ‘I think I might wanna get divorced.’ Because I just felt so overwhelmed with all the family problems and like his inability to set boundaries with his family. And I remember my dad told me, ‘If you get divorced, that’s gonna break God’s heart and that will break my heart’ … And so I was like, ‘Well, I’m not gonna do that.’”
“I look back now and I’m like, I really could have just cut out four years worth of circular conversations that just got us nowhere,” she added. “But I just didn’t wanna give up.”
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