Little People, Big Problems: The Tragic Truth Behind the Roloff Family’s Story

Little People, Big World has been a hit series on TLC since 2006. The reality show follows the lives of the Roloff family—the members of which have inherited different mutations of the dwarf gene—on their farm near Portland, Oregon.

The show won the hearts of viewers across the nation with the ups and downs of the family’s life—but they also suffered many tragedies along the way. Keep reading to uncover the struggle that recently came to light.

The TLC series follows the Roloff family, featuring a mother and father, Amy and Matthew Roloff, who both suffer from dwarfism. They have three children—twin boys Zach and Jeremy, and a daughter named Molly. Zach also has dwarfism, but both Jeremy and Molly don’t.

Screenshot from “Little People, Big World”

So the Roloffs are a family of mixed sizes—some are little people while some are regular height. As you can imagine, this leads to many complicated situations—in more ways than one.

The Roloff family owns and operates a farm—and as anyone who’s worked on a farm could tell you, working, tilling, and taking care of any stretch of land can take quite a bit of effort and physical labor.

Image via @amyjroloff/Instagram

But the Roloff’s are doers, and they find ways to make things work, even when it isn’t easy.

When the Roloff family was first approached by TLC with an offer to film a reality show about their family, Amy, the mother, jumped at the chance.

Realistic, everyday portrayals of short-statured people had never been widely circulated on television programming before, and Amy saw this as an excellent chance to reach people and communicate an issue that was important to her and which directly influenced her and her family.

Image via @amyjroloff/Instagram

From Their Home to Yours

The show has been airing with solid ratings for over a decade now, garnering praise for its positive, real-life portrayal of dwarfs and the everyday challenges they face, as well as for the engaging relationships and family life of the cast.

Image via @amyjroloff/Instagram

Despite these positive aspects, some critics believe that the romantic relationships in the show aren’t presented in the best light and that there is still room for improvement, as far as representation of short-statured people and their lives is concerned.

Jacob’s Accident

Jacob, the Roloffs’ youngest son, was featured on the show when it first aired. But in the first year of filming, Jacob had a bizarre and traumatic accident.

The family owns a trebuchet, which they use to launch pumpkins from the family’s pumpkin patch as a promotion during pumpkin season. Three days before Halloween, 2006, both Jacob and his friend Mike were seriously injured when the trebuchet prematurely triggered, and Jacob had to be hospitalized with serious injuries.

Image via @jacobroloff45/Instagram

Sadly, this wasn’t the only difficulty Jacob faced during filming. As soon as he turned 18, Jacob left the family home and he no longer appears on the show—due to a contract dispute.

The Newcomer

In 2010, a new face showed up on the Roloffs’ farm. Victoria Elizabeth “Tori” Patton came to work part-time for the family, not knowing that this would be a life-changing decision.

Image via @toriroloff / Instagram

Zach, one of the Roloffs’ children, took an immediate liking to her. It took him time—four months, to be exact—but he eventually worked up the courage to ask the beautiful new farm hand out. Tori took him up on his offer, and since then the two have been like two peas in a pod… or like two pumpkins in a patch.

One Big (Yet Small) Happy Family

While Tori’s day job is quite humble, her relationship with Zach and their participation in the TV show Little People, Big World has catapulted her to a whole new level of national recognizability, fame, and nearly celebrity status.

Image by @TLC/YouTube

And as you can imagine, the fame has brought with it new problems and challenges, which she later opened up about in a revealing and candid confession.

A New Kind of Baby

Given the success of the show, in 2012, TLC’s producers gave parents Matthew and Amy a spinoff series.

In Little People Big World: Wedding Farm the two parents ventured into the wedding planning business, and a camera crew followed them around, documenting them as they established their business.