Olivia Plath found new Duggar family docuseries 'triggering to watch'
Olivia Plath has opened up about how watching the new documentary series about the Duggar family has been 'triggering' for her.
Amazon Prime's Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets takes a deep-dive look at the Duggars and their controversial religious beliefs.
The Duggars, made famous by their TLC show 19 Kids and Counting, belonged to the Institute in Basic Life Principles.
Advert
The fringe Christian organisation believes that men should have complete authority over their wives, children should always be homeschooled and that members should adhere to a strict moral code.
Members are forbidden from consuming most forms of media, drinking alcohol or dancing.
Reflecting on the new series exploring the link between the Duggars and the IBLP, Plath reflected on her own upbringing in a fundamentalist family.
The 25-year-old shared on her Instagram that watching the new show had been 'triggering' for her.
She said: "That was my life up until a few years ago.
"A little triggering to watch, but also there is solidarity in having other people speak up and say, ‘Yep, you're not crazy, happened to me too. I know about this.’ That is healing in a way."
Plath claims that she has had followers reach out begging her to talk more publicly about her own experiences.
The reality star said: "I will say, the realm in which my public life exists, there's a lot of things I can't say.
"There's a lot of things I want to say about religion, about my past, about the world that I went right back into, and I hadn't known to say them in the public space that exists for me, so I'm gonna get on [Instagram] instead.
"I'm jumping on to say my experience, to be honest, was decently negative.
"There's a lot of things that I laugh about now, because what else are you supposed to do?”
Plath added she's 'not really religious anymore'.
Plath had appeared on Welcome to Plathville alongside her family of Christian fundamentalists.
The show, which debuted on TLC in November 2019, centred around the Plath family in Georgia, who abstained from technology.
Plath was married to Ethan, the oldest of nine children in the family.
The latest documentary on the Duggar family comes after years of scandal, controversy and legal issues for the Arkansas-based family.
Their first show was cancelled in 2015 after it was revealed that son Josh had been accused of sexually fondled five girls, including four of his sisters.
The next show Counting On ran until 2021, when Josh was found guilty of possessing indecent images of children.
Topics: Film and TV, Social Media, Amazon Prime
Ben Thompson