Publish date: 2024-07-20
Amy Roloff has a front-row seat to her ex-husband, Matt Roloff, building his dream home on the farmland they formerly shared.
“It doesn’t surprise me because we together have talked about that over time when we were going to remodel the farmhouse and everything,” Amy, 61, exclusively told Us Weekly on Tuesday, February 20, while promoting season 25 of Little People, Big World. “So the shape of his new home is exactly what we talked about 30 years ago or something. So it doesn’t surprise me.”
Amy and Matt, 62, were married between 1987 and 2016, raising their family of four kids on a farm in rural Oregon. After they divorced in 2017, Amy sold her portion of the land to Matt. He is currently building a new home on the property to live in with his fiancée, Caryn Chandler.
“It’s strange for me to come onto the farm, but it is a place that I raised my kids on and everything, but as I come onto the farm, I’m able to separate it a lot better now,” Amy told Us of the property, which was also the site of her August 2021 wedding to Chris Marek. “That’s in the past. That was a different chapter. Just enjoy that. Don’t intermix what’s happening now in that, because then … I’ll lose what was really good about living there and raising a family, he and I and the kids and their friends and stuff like that.”
Matt and Caryn, 53, have both hinted that Amy might inherit the farmland after the Little People, Big World patriarch dies.
“When Matt said that, ‘Well, I might just leave the whole thing to you when I die,’ and I’m like, ‘Yeah, right,’” Amy quipped. “Well, I’ve known Matt long enough. He says a whole lot of things. I’ll believe it when it all happens.”
Amy’s husband, Chris, doesn’t think that Matt is presenting a serious offer.
“I don’t think he’s actually going to leave it to you, just make her the [executor], which I think was actually smart because Amy will be very good at making sure everyone is treated evenly,” Chris, 61, theorized to Us. “That’s one thing that I know about her. She doesn’t play favorites with any of her kids, and so she would be a good person to make sure it’s done to his wishes and fairly.”
Ownership of Roloff Farms sparked a family feud in 2021 after Matt opted against selling a portion of the land to son Zach Roloff. One year later, Matt listed 16 acres for sale after claiming his children didn’t want to inherit it. Zach, 33, called his dad’s allegations false before he and wife Tori Roloff settled in Washington with their three kids.
Amy, for her part, can “totally understand” Zach’s frustrations with Matt.
“[With] the whole family, their whole life has been about legacy and [hearing] ‘the farm’s going to stay in the family’ and stuff like that, but, unfortunately, life throws us curve balls and we have to make those adjustments and given time, hopefully, things will get better,” she told Us. “The thing I remind all my kids, and I think what our show is constantly about, is family. You go through roller-coaster rides, whether you hate the other person or you’re very angry and upset at your parents and stuff.”
Amy continued: “Put it in a different context where you can deal with it and appreciate it. It’s never going to be the same. It’ll be different but put it in that different thing where we’re still going to get together for families, which we do. We still get together for other things, and it’s about family.”
The fallout from the estate drama will play out on season 25 of Little People, Big World, which premiered on Tuesday on TLC.
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“I would’ve never thought that [we’d get a season 25],” Amy said. “It’s a big season to celebrate as we’ve all been a part of it. Obviously, not all the kids are a part of it anymore, but that’s how families are too and they leave the nest. But we’re still! I am amazed. I am really shocked. Sometimes it feels like just yesterday when we began, sometimes I look at it and it’s like, ‘Wow the breadth of years,’ as you’ve seen a lot of my kids grow up and be who they are today.”
Little People, Big World airs on TLC Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET.
With reporting by Christina Garibaldi
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