Lydia Plath remembers ‘every detail’ of her 17-month-old brother’s death

Welcome to Plathville star Lydia Plath still remembers the details of the tragic death of her 17-month-old brother Joshua.

“I remember specific details about his childhood. I remember that afternoon when he was sleeping on his blanket in the sun, and then every detail of the accident, I remember so well,” Lydia, 21, said on the Wednesday, January 7, episode of “Unplanned.” podcast. “I was in the car when it happened.”

Lydia’s mother, Kim Plath, accidentally ran over his son Joshua with a vehicle in 2008. The death was ruled accidental and Joshua’s cause of death was listed as “head injuries.” (Kim and ex-husband Barry Plath also share nine other children: Ethan, Hosanna, Micah, Moriah, Lydia, Isaac, Amber, Cassia and Mercy.)

“My mother, panicked, went out [and] I pulled it out from under the car,” recalls Lydia, who was 4 at the time. “Then she and all my siblings ran into the house to grab the phone. Isaac and I were in the car, I got out and saw [Joshua] and it was terrible. I got back in the car and told Isaac, ‘Don’t look. Just exit through the other door.

Keep scrolling for more of Lydia’s heartfelt memories of her upbringing and how she honors Joshua’s memory:

Mourning Joshua after his tragic death

“Our household wasn’t necessarily one to talk about everything and be vulnerable when it happened,” Lydia said through tears. “We didn’t know how to talk about it, especially since it was in my mother’s hands, we weren’t going to dare talk about it around her.”

According to Lydia, it felt like her family had to “cut [their] emotions” to move forward.

“I can see it in my mom sometimes: ‘Does she know how to connect and how to feel and how to know her emotions and all those things?’” she said. “Other times I imagine she can’t do it because she had to stop it because it’s too painful. So I think [Joshua’s death] This has definitely affected our family more than most realize since it happened so long ago.

She continued: “I think the hardest part, for me growing up, was how little recognition he had. I don’t think I visited his grave until I was 9 because it was too hard to go back.”

Growing Up Plath

Kim and Barry raised their children on a farm in rural Georgia with strict rules on everything from food to technology.

“Everything we ate was organic [and] natural. We grew a lot of our own stuff,” Lydia said Wednesday. “It felt like we were really healthy and active and we grew up on 45 acres with horses, cows, chickens. [and] ducks. We all had our own garden at one point.

Why Kim and Barry Plath “sheltered” their children

“My parents both experienced a lot in the world and wanted to protect us from that,” Lydia said. “My mother was an only child with an alcoholic single mother and her mother wasn’t really in her life until she was 12.”

After Kim’s “difficult childhood,” she didn’t want her children to face the same difficulties.

“It’s led us to be a lot more sheltered than most people, which I think is definitely an aspect of it,” Lydia admitted. “But I don’t think you need to pretend it doesn’t exist to protect your children from it.”

Misconceptions about the Plath family’s religious beliefs

Speaking on the ‘Unplanned’ podcast, Lydia denied that Kim and Barry’s strict guidelines were religiously motivated.

“I was raised in a Christian home, but I don’t think my parents did a very good job, for example, I never perceived that the way I was raised was because that was what God wanted,” Lydia said. “It was more just a lifestyle that my mother wanted. She wanted to have lots of children, she wanted land. [and] all these things.

The Plaths primarily practiced their religion by reading the Bible as a unit and occasionally hosting or participating in “home groups” with other local families.

“We weren’t part of a church,” Lydia said. “It was always difficult to find people who were families that really fit the heart of the father and not just a lifestyle or a legalistic production or all those things.”

According to Lydia, the Plaths also didn’t practice fundamentalism or IBLP like the Duggars.

How Kim and Barry Plath’s Divorce Affected Their Children

Kim and Barry announced in 2022 that they had separated after two decades of marriage.

“I think there was a point, shortly after my parents separated, where I didn’t want anything to do with any relationship,” Lydia said. “It’s like, ‘What’s the point? [because] this marriage that you have admired all your life has arrived at [almost] Nothing.”

After “getting over” her feelings, Lydia eventually found love with now-husband Zac Wyse.

“I will not let fear stop me from doing something that is not the reason I am doing or not doing something,” she said. “With [my marriage]my parents had been separated for three years since we met, so I had time to think about this.

Lydia and Wyse I got married in February 2025a month after Kim and Barry settled their divorce.

Zac Wyse responds to rumors about his sexuality

Shortly after Wyse proposed to Lydia, her future brother-in-law Ethan wondered if he was secretly gay.

“I didn’t feel the need to fuel that fire because I wanted to fuel what was going well,” Wyse said, revealing how he informed Lydia of the comments without giving them much weight. “A lot of things happened and I told him about it in due time, when it was necessary.”

Lydia Plath and Zac Wyse are ready to have babies ‘soon’

Lydia proclaimed on the podcast that she has “baby fever forever” and is can’t wait to become a mother in a year or two.

“We decided [to] wait a year and talk,” Wyse said. “I think we want to be parents very soon, just young parents.”