The relationship between Moriah Plath and Max Kallschmidt made a lot of their loyal fans happy, as they witnessed the attraction and attachment that the two forged through the popular reality television show, “Welcome to Plathville.” Viewers were fascinated by how Moriah broke all the rules that her strict parents laid out for her, when she met her first boyfriend in the second season of the show. Everything seemed to be going great until rumors about a break-up surfaced online after the third season, which was later confirmed by both parties. Unfaithfulness was the main reason that they both gave initially, but later on disagreed on the details.
The 101 on “Welcome to Plathville”
The dynamics of those with unusually large families had been one of the favorite topics on TLC cable network’s reality-TV shows, and “Welcome to Plathville” was one of them. The curiosity of the viewers was captured due to the ultra-conservative views of the parents of the Plath family. It made its television debut on 5 November 2019, and developed a loyal fan base that made the TV network executives keep ordering new episodes. The show’s fourth season finished airing in August 2022.
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The premise of the series
The Plath family lived on a 55-acre farm in the southern rural part of Georgia, which they called their little piece of heaven on earth. Barry and Kim Plath were described as Christian fundamentalists, and the TV show followed the daily lives of the Plath family as they imposed strict rules on their children. They weren’t isolated, but the parents made sure that their children were shielded from many things, including the full impact of technology, secular music, and the wonders of the sugar rush such as soda and cotton candy. During the second season, they moved to a small town near the border with Florida, called Cairo. The town had around 10,000 residents, and having a small population usually meant that most people knew each other in their neighborhood.
Main stars of “Welcome to Plathville”
The Plath couple had been married for 24 years by the time they appeared in the TV series, along with their nine children. Barry, the patriarch of the family, had worked as a transportation planner for a private company for quite some time, even before he was married. His wife and the mother of his children, Kim, was a naturopathic doctor for several years. The couple formed the Plath family gospel band, which included all their nine blue-eyed children, namely Mercy, Cassia, Amber, Lydia, Micah, Isaac, Ethan, Hosana and Moriah; they were all homeschooled by their mother. Another regular cast member in the series was Olivia, who was married to Ethan six months before the filming of the first season.
The Plath children were originally 10, but the couple’s 17-month-old son, Joshua, died in an accident in their backyard in April 2008, which was then investigated by the police; according to a news report, Kim was moving a vehicle forward and unknowingly hit Joshua. She thought that she had all her kids accounted for at the time of the incident; emergency personnel were dispatched, but failed to save the kid.
Not all the Plath children were featured in the series
While “Welcome to Plathville” was all about the lives of the Plath family, it didn’t mean that all of them were featured extensively in the series. Among all the children, the oldest daughter, Hosanna, opted not to be involved at the same level as her siblings. She was introduced in the first season but her appearances were limited. Around five months before the TV premiere of the show, she married her boyfriend, Timothy Noble, and the newlyweds moved to Ohio.
Not all of the Plath children lived in one home
Only five children lived with their parents in their family home. Aside from Hosanna, Ethan, the oldest son, lived in another house with his wife, having waited for almost four years before he could do that. It was located around 10 to 15 minutes away from the Plath farm, but they later moved to Tampa, Florida, as Olivia had a falling out with her mother-in-law. The second oldest daughter, Moriah, and the second oldest son, Micah, moved out of the home as well. They all seemed to be having the time of their lives after they escaped the shadows of their parents, especially Moriah who’d dreamt of her freedom for such a long time. One of the things that made the reality-TV show fascinating was how the Plath children reacted to things they were unaccustomed to having while growing up.
Who are Moriah Plath and Max Kallschmidt?
Moriah Jasper Plath was described as the opinionated one in the family, and she admitted that she’d always been different from her siblings. Her father concurred that she was indeed wired differently, and her mother shared that it wasn’t that she was rebellious, but it was more about proving them wrong about the things that she could or couldn’t do. Moriah said that she had nothing against her parents and that she loved them dearly, but she didn’t agree with everything they said. The most basic thing about her was that she loved her freedom, being crazy, and just having fun in general. She said that her sisters Hosanna and Lydia were the perfect ones, and that she was the opposite of them.
Max Kallschmidt was introduced to the fans of “Welcome to Plathville” in the second season of the show as the guy who Moriah was dating. He was a Florida native, and was believed to have graduated from Tallahassee Community College as listed on his LinkedIn page. He was the founder and owner of a business firm called Anchor 23 Marketing, which offered digital marketing services, including lead generation, customer service, and sales to small businesses anywhere in the US. Other than that, there was little information that could be found about him.
The ups and downs of Moriah and Max’s love story
First date, and a great impression
In the second episode of the second season, Moriah went out on her first date, and it was with Max. She was excited and scared at the same time, as she grew up believing that dating or even friendship with a boy was wrong, as her parents had instilled in her. Max came on a motorbike to fetch her from home, her first time riding on one. They went out to eat at a local diner, and through it all, he made her feel comfortable. He even said, ‘Most people were like so scared to eat in front of other people on their first date, but not me. It’s going to get messy and I’ll just go ahead and say that out front.’ She found him cute and funny. Max thought that it was kind of crazy that they were on their first date; it took more than 24 hours before he received a text message back from her, and he thought that she hated him and felt that there was no way that he would have a chance with her. Moriah said that it was because everyone in her family sucked at communication, and that she was continuously trying to teach herself how to be better at it.
Moriah was afraid to tell Max about her past
When Moriah and Max talked about their families, they found out that they both came from big families. However, she was reluctant to tell him about her background and why she left home at the age of 17, because she was worried that it would scare him off. Apparently, the night that she met him was when her parents told her to leave the house. She bravely shared with him what happened, and wasn’t judged for it, which cemented whatever feelings she had about him. After that, they started seeing each other two to three times a week, and truth be told, if Moriah was to have any choice about it, she would have loved seeing him five times a week. She fell for him quite hard, but was also nervous and wary, aware that it was only her first relationship.
Micah approved of the relationship but warned her to take her time
Moriah made sure that Micah met Max and told him that she really liked the guy as if he was her best friend. Her brother told her that it was a good thing, but reminded her to take her time and not rush into anything. Micah was super excited for his sister, and said that he liked Max because he felt that he was a good guy. However, as a big brother, he couldn’t help but feel protective of her. Even if he didn’t have many relationships, he still had more experience than Moriah, and he didn’t want her to make the same mistakes that he did in the past. One of them was diving into a serious commitment when he didn’t fully know the other person. He said it was harder for him and Moriah since they grew up not having any regular relationships, even friendships.
OMG I love Moriah and Max 💕❣🥰 #welcometoplathville pic.twitter.com/WzP2EqPcCN
— Half a Teacher (@HalfTeacher) October 21, 2021
Her communication issues led to their breakup
Everything seemed to be going well for Max and Moriah until he noticed that she struggled with opening up emotionally. He said that it might be due to the way she was raised; in his family, they always confronted a problem head-on, so they could find an immediate solution to it. They tried many times to make the relationship work, but they weren’t successful because she completely shut him out whenever they had issues. He finally said that it would be best if they both took a step back. Moriah asked him, ‘Are you for real breaking up with me?’ and he nodded. She then asked if they could remain friends, because she realized that in all those times that she didn’t have anyone to talk with, she had him. Max said that they could still be friends, but they had to set boundaries because the feelings were still there, that she needed to introduce him to her parents. He felt that her issues started with her family, and he wanted to understand her better so that he could help her grow more. He believed that they needed to get past this problem for them to have a chance to be together. At that time, she didn’t know that his ultimate goal was to end up with her.
Max and Moriah reconciled
It didn’t take long for the two to realize that they couldn’t live without each other. They continued to hang out as friends even after the break-up, and they eventually reconciled. Max waited for Moriah to be more open about her thoughts and feelings; on the day that she asked him to help her set up lights around the house, they talked about their situation and then shared a kiss at the end of the day. It was memorable for Moriah as it was her first kiss and said that it was more than what she expected.
A promise ring that everyone thought was an engagement ring
In the third season, Moriah and Max’s relationship grew stronger, even though they encountered hiccups along the way, including his disapproval of her wardrobe choices such as the cropped tops and booty shorts. They were able to get past it, as Max said that the issues could be more about his insecurities and not really her revealing clothes. When the fans saw her wearing a ring, speculations about an engagement surfaced online, but when the episode about it aired, it was revealed that it was just a promise ring. They made plans to move in together, and live in Tampa, Florida to be near Ethan and Olivia.
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Rumors of a break-up went around social media before the fourth season
Official social media accounts were the number one sources of legitimate information about any celebrity’s status in life. When fans saw that Moriah was no longer wearing the promise ring, and that Max was no longer featured in her Instagram account, they speculated that the two had broken-up. Some nosy fans even asked her about it on social media, but she refrained from answering any of the queries. It was because they waited for the airing of the fourth season of “Welcome to Plathville”, as the producers included it in the TV show’s narrative, which was understandable since everyone knew about the relationship through the TV show. In the teaser, she confirmed the rumour, but she refused to share any details. Apparently, a few days after she arrived in Florida, Max called her up and confessed that he’d made a mistake.
The truth about the breakup between Moriah Plath and Max Kallschmidt
Initially, no one gave the details behind the break-up. In an episode, Max admitted to Micah that he kissed another girl. In a now-deleted video that Max uploaded on YouTube, he explained that he crossed some boundaries that he and Moriah both established in their relationship. He also shared that right after he confessed about it, she broke-up from him during their ‘phone conversation.
However, Moira was quite disappointed with Max’s video confession, because she felt that he wasn’t really being truthful about it. One of the things she clarified about their separation was that Max cheated on her. She told Olivia and Ethan that her ex-boyfriend evaded and went around the reasons for the break-up, and couldn’t even admit outright that he had been unfaithful. One of the major things that she hated about his ‘confession’ was that she felt that Max unnecessarily tried to include her family in the reasons why they broke-up.
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Fans were surprised when Max said that he was pressured to move with her to Tampa, and that he never really got along well with her brother Ethan and sister-in-law Olivia. He also insinuated that they were struggling again with communication issues, that led to the night of his transgression. However, he said that he never slept with the other woman, and only admitted to kissing and flirting. Moriah refuted his reasons, saying that their relationship was going strongly at that time. She said, ‘I felt extremely let down,’ during a conversation with her older brother and sister-in-law. While she was highly disappointed with the things he said in the video, short of accusing him of lying, she still wouldn’t go into details as to what happened, as she didn’t want to embarrass him.
Initially, some of the viewers of “Welcome to Plathville” thought that the whole thing was just for additional drama in the Max and Moriah narrative, and that they would quickly reconcile once again. However, many rumors came out that put Max in a bad light, so he opted to make his entire social media accounts private. No one could blame him because, at the time that the fourth season of the show was being aired, his cheating scandal became a favorite topic on social media, and some fans couldn’t help but leave not-so-good messages on some of his posts. It didn’t help that Lauren, Ethan Plath’s sister-in-law, was even dragged into the scandal, and some even insinuated that she was part of the reason why Max and Moriah separated.
If the allegations were true, it would have been the juiciest scandal in the reality-TV show.
