After splitting in 2016, Little People Big World star Amy Roloff sold her shares in the family’s Oregon farm to her ex-husband Matt, a decision she now admits she regrets.
In an interview on the Steve and Natali Off the Air podcast posted on Tuesday, Amy talked with cohosts Steve Dunn and Natali Marmion about her feelings about her former home now that’s it’s been once again listed for sale by Matt.
“[G]oing back there and seeing this house, I’m like, man, the things I could have done, the decisions I probably would have made maybe differently knowing what happened, but anyway, no, I can’t allow that because it’s more important for me to see my son, his wife and my grandson,” she said, referring to youngest son Jacob and daughter-in-law Isabel, who operate Helvetia Gardens on a rented portion of the farmland that’s not part of the sale.
Matt first listed the family home, red barn and portion of the surrounding 109 acres, back in 2022, a move that caused serious rifts in the family, as The Ashley reported. At the time, Matt claimed his twin sons Jeremy and Zach “decided not to consider working together toward a possible joint sale.”
Zach countered his father’s take on the situation at the time, posting to social media, “Once again like he has for most of his life not taking responsibility for his own actions and blaming others. Dragging the family drama that he created and then manipulate the fan base to make himself come out okay. This post is a new shocking low of cowardice and manipulation of his family and kids for his own gain.”
Since then, Matt has taken the house on and off the market multiple times, and even offered the home for short-term rentals, a decision that didn’t sit well with Amy. In a 2024 episode of the family’s TLC show, she said, “I never pictured the house that I’ve raised my kids in for the last 30 years to be a short-term rental. It’s too big of a place. There should be a family, or someone, in it.”
The house, which the former couple purchased when she was pregnant with their twin sons, has long been special to Amy. She revealed in her conversation with Steve and Natali that she didn’t want to open the home to cameras when her family was first approached about having a TV show.
“Well, I thought it was a bad idea because, you know, this haven that we had, the farm and the house, that was, this is where the kids can come, let loose, you know, talk about, ‘Oh, your parents are dwarfs, little people,’ you know, that whole big things, so, to me, my home was my haven, but [Matt] convinced me, obviously, that it would be a good thing and it was, it was a good thing,” she said.
After being featured on TV for 25 seasons, and welcoming thousands of families at events including the annual pumpkin festival, Amy wishes the Roloff home and farm could stay in the family, telling Steve and Natali, “He’s selling the farmhouse, that’s been going on for about three, four years, and the internal dynamics, we all feel it’s very, very sad that there wasn’t something that could happen between one of the boys and stuff.”
Her boys feel the same way, at least according to their wives. Jeremy’s wife Audrey has mentioned multiple times on social media that the couple has considered purchasing the home.
“We have been busy building our own dream on the property we bought a couple years after the farm fell through,” she shared in March. “But after having [our son] Bode’s birthday in the barn last month, we sort of had this ‘what if’ moment. Seeing the farm with new eyes and in a completely different season of life gave us pause.
“If we wanted to sell our house and buy the farm now, we could,” Audrey continued. “It feels like God is giving us the opportunity to choose it again if we want. And we do feel conflicted.”
A few months later, she posted, “We are still dreaming, praying and trying to figure out some possible way to save Roloff Farms. This is too complicated to explain here, but we will divulge on the podcast if we can ever turn that into a glass ball.”
Audrey mentioned the farm again in August, writing, “However, every time we go there, we can’t help but wonder if there is a way to still buy it through some creative means. Not necessarily to live on, but to use it for a business, ministry, and/or place for goodness and beauty to multiply. I still just have this hunch that God might make a way.”
These musings haven’t sat well with Audrey’s sister-in-law Isabel, who is living, working and raising her young son on the property, The Ashley reported.
“We tend to the plants and animals and the land of this place,” Isabel told fans on TikTok. “We’ve been here for 4 years trying to figure out how to authentically save it but at the end of the day? You need money. I just get a bad taste in my mouth that they talk about it like they would be the ones to come in and save the day when we’re here, wishing we could find a way to make it work. They never asked if we wanted to work together.”
While the future of the home and part of the property remain up in the air, Matt did share in 2024 what will happen to the rest of the property following his death. “We’re all but decided that when I die, we’re giving whatever piece of the farm I still have to Amy,” he announced on an episode of ‘Little People Big World.’
Watch Amy’s full interview with Steve and Natali below.
(Photos: Instagram; YouTube)
