‘Welcome to Plathville’: Lydia Plath Asks Moriah Plath For Advice On Her ‘Mystery Man’
On TLC’s Welcome to Plathville, 16-year-old Lydia Plath – the middle child of nine kids – is known as the sister who most readily obeys her parents’ rules.
Lydia is deeply religious, much like her parents, Christian fundamentalists Kim and Barry Plath. She’s also often tasked with the household chores, homeschooling, and childcare, with which she seems more content than many might imagine of a teen girl.
On the Nov. 17 episode of Welcome to Plathville season 2, Lydia uncharacteristically opened up to her sister, 17-year-old Moriah Plath, about her love life. She admitted she had a crush on a family friend – a boy she’d met three years ago who, according to Moriah, still frequently asked about her.
Lydia revealed the identity of her crush to her older sister
After Moriah moved out of the Plath family home, Lydia and Moriah were rarely able to see each other. Their parents were wary about Micah and Moriah’s influence on the younger children.
But the sisters, who have remained close over the years despite their differences, were finally able to get together for dinner at Moriah’s new house. And Moriah wasted no time asking her younger sister about her possible love interest.
While Lydia refused to say the mystery man’s name on-screen, she hinted heavily at his identity.
“There is someone that I would like you to tell me how they’re doing, because there’s not really a way for me to know, because I’m not really in their lives right now,” Lydia told Moriah meaningfully, with a knowing glint in her eye. “I think you might get what I’m saying.”
When Lydia’s meaning hit Moriah, she gasped and nearly began to cry.
Moriah told Welcome to Plathville producers that Lydia had had a crush on a boy she met at 13. Since then, she thought Lydia had “lost interest” in him, but it seemed he never had. In fact, he’d contacted Moriah several times to ask after her younger sister.
The ‘Welcome to Plathville’ star explained that she’d met her love interest several years earlier
While Lydia hadn’t been sure at first that she wanted to pursue a relationship with the boy in question, her interest was eventually rekindled.
“I guess you could say it took me a long time to realize,” the Welcome to Plathville star said shyly.
A nervous-looking Lydia opened up to TLC producers about her crush of several years, with whom she now hoped to reconnect.
“My mystery man,” she gushed, smiling widely. “I’ve known him for several years. When I first met him, I liked him. And then there was a time where I kind of just dropped it…It’s taken me several years to realize that I still like him.”
Moriah encouraged her sister to ‘give it a shot’
Because Moriah and Lydia were so different – especially when it came to following their parents’ rules – Moriah was shocked when her sister asked her for advice on what to do next. She admitted that she wasn’t sure what advice to give.
The 16-year-old was especially concerned about what her parents would think. She didn’t want to be too aggressive or pursue her potential boyfriend too actively.
“I don’t really want to get into anything without Mommy and Daddy knowing,” the Welcome to Plathville star said, chewing her lip nervously.
Still, Moriah gently encouraged her sister to “give it a shot.” She suggested she give her crush a call or write a letter – “something small and simple and sweet.”
“It doesn’t have to be much,” Moriah assured Lydia. “Just let him know that you’re thinking of him.”
But after two years of giving up on the relationship, Lydia wasn’t quite ready to jump into anything just yet. Still, she told TLC producers that she “really wanted to see” her crush again, if at all possible.
