Global Courant
“Welcome to Plathville” star Olivia Plath felt an unfortunate familiarity with the new four-part docuseries “Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets.”
“That was my life until a few years ago,” Plath revealed in an Instagram story post on Saturday. “A bit triggering to see, but there’s also solidarity when other people speak up and say, ‘Yeah, you’re not crazy, happened to me too. I know about this.’ That’s healing in a way.”
“Shiny Happy People” explores how the Duggar family rose to fame and fall from grace after allegations emerged in 2015 that the eldest Duggar son, Josh, molested five young girls when he was 12. Josh later admitted four of his younger sisters and a babysitter.
The show, which premiered June 1 on Amazon Prime, also covers their involvement with the controversial organization Institute in Basic Life Principles, a fundamentalist Christian group.
DUGGAR DOCUSERIES ‘SHINY HAPPY PEOPLE’ REVEALS SHOCKING SECRETS ABOUT REALITY TV FAMILY
Ethan and Olivia Plath, in a promo image for the TLC series ‘Welcome to Plathville’. Olivia Plath spoke out, saying the Duggar docuseries was “triggering” to watch. (TLC/Welcome to Plathville Season 3)
Similar to the Duggars, Plath appeared in a TLC reality series titled “Welcome to Plathville”. The show premiered in 2019 and followed Christian fundamentalists Barry and Kim Plath and their nine children as they lived their lives in rural Georgia with limited technology. The family’s eldest son, Ethan, married Olivia before the series began.
After Plath posted on social media, she said she got an “overwhelming response from people saying, ‘Please, let’s talk about it.'” So she and her sister, Lydia, went live on Instagram Monday to talk about their experience as “ex-(fundamentalists) and ex-cult kids.”
“I will say, the realm in which my public life exists, there are a lot of things I can’t say,” Plath said. “There are many things I want to say about religion, about my past, about the world I went back to, and I didn’t know I’d say them in the public space that exists for me, so I’m going to go on ( Instagram).”
The docuseries “Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets” premiered on Amazon Prime on June 1. (first)
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Plath continued, “I’m jumping to say that my experience, to be honest, was pretty negative. There’s a lot of things I’m laughing about now because what else are you supposed to do?”
She also noted that she “isn’t really religious anymore”.
Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar called the docuseries “derogatory and sensational.” (Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images)
In response to the documentary, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar have posted a statement on their website.
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“The recent ‘documentary’ about our family is sad because it shows the media and ill-intentioned people hurting those we love,” they wrote. “Like other families, ours too has experienced the joys and heartbreaks of life, only in a very public form. This ‘documentary’ paints so much and so much in a derogatory and sensational way, because unfortunately that’s the direction of life these days. entertainment.”
