Ken Palmer calls out his girlfriend, Kim Plath, for not losing weight on the upcoming episode of Welcome to Plathville, claiming her lack of effort could spell disaster for their relationship.
“I want her to be around for a long time for me and for the kids,” Ken tells the cameras in Us Weekly’s exclusive sneak peek at the Tuesday, May 19, episode of the TLC series. “But I feel like she just kind of put the getting healthy [plan] on the back burner.”
He claims, “I’m not seeing any changes and it’s starting to get frustrating.”
Kim — who has been dating Ken since 2022, following her split from ex-husband Barry Plath — admits to Ken that she has been struggling in her quest to slim down, pointing to her age as a big factor in her slow progress.
Kim Plath. TLC
“It’s been a little bit daunting, you know, being in my 50s and trying to lose weight. I mean, it’s not as easy as it was in my 20s or even in my 30s,” she tells him as they sit on a swing on their farm. “I’m trying to work out more and I don’t know. There’s days where it’s just really hard to work in something, you know?”
Ken, however, isn’t convinced that Kim is trying hard enough to change despite telling him she’s working on herself.
“To me, sometimes it seems like things happen, but you also use it as an excuse not to exercise,” Ken claims. “I’ve looked back and seen where you haven’t really tried or hadn’t really put the effort in.”
Kim, 53, is silent as Ken shares his unfiltered thoughts on her weight loss, simply nodding her head.
“I really love Kim and I want to see her get healthier, but I think it could potentially be a deal breaker if she is not going to commit to her health,” Ken tells the cameras. “It makes me wonder, is she committed to me?”
Ken also brings up his fears that Kim is dragging her feet to her face, saying, “To me, that would tell me that you don’t care enough about me and you to put in the extra effort.”
Ken Palmer, Kim Plath. Courtesy of Ken Palmer/Instagram
He confesses, “It’s hard to commit 100 percent until I know that you’re 100 percent committed and not just from you telling me by seeing it.”
Kim remains calm and stoic during the conversation, but later admits during a confessional that Ken’s remarks don’t sit well with her.
“I don’t really like that it’s a deal breaker for him. I mean, I feel like he’s giving me an ultimatum,” she shares.
Kim then confesses, “I do worry about the future of our relationship when I hear him say things like that.”
Welcome to Plathville stars Kim and Barry Plath went their separate ways after two decades of marriage. “After considerable thought and discussion, we have decided to end our marriage,” the exes told Us Weekly in a joint June 2022 statement. “While this was not an easy decision, we know it’s the best choice for both […]
As fans of Welcome to Plathville know, Kim began dating Ken following her split from Barry, whom she was married to for 24 years.
The exes share nine children: Ethan, Hosanna, Micah, Moriah, Lydia, Isaac, Amber, Cassia and Mercy. Their 10th child, son Joshua, died in 2008 when he was 17 months old following a farm accident.
Kim filed for divorce in June 2024, listing their date of separation as December 2021. (The former spouses publicly announced their breakup in June 2022.)
Kim Plath, Ken Palmer. Courtesy of Ken Palmer/Instagram
Kim and Barry continued to film the TLC reality show and are still part of each other’s lives. They finalized their divorce sometime in 2025, which Kim confirmed during the season 8 premiere of the show in March.
During the same episode, Kim revealed that Ken had moved in with her on the Plath family farm in Whigham, Georgia, after briefly pressing pause on their romance amid her and Barry’s ups and downs.
“When the divorce was finalized, we realized that we did want to be with each other,” Kim said during the premiere, noting that Ken lives with her and her three youngest daughters. (Kim and Barry split custody of the girls 50/50.)
Welcome to Plathville airs on TLC Tuesdays at 10 p.m. ET.
