Katie Bates said on May 17 that she and Travis Clark are moving to a new home after months of what she called heavy and life-changing circumstances. Bates said the decision comes after hard conversations, therapy, prayer and a long effort to figure out what is healthiest for their family.
“Life has looked different lately, but I’m really excited for what’s ahead,” Bates said in an Instagram post, adding that the move is not about running or pretending a new place will magically fix anything. The couple currently lives in Knoxville, Tennessee, but Bates did not say where the family is headed.
The move lands after a difficult stretch for the pair, who share two children, Hailey, 3, and Harvey, 19 months. Five months before Bates announced the move, Clark admitted to having an extramarital affair. He made that admission the same day Bates said she had experienced a miscarriage, a sequence that turned the family’s private crisis into a very public one.
Bates has been signaling for weeks that she was trying to sort through the turmoil with a therapist’s help. On May 4, she posted a video about learning the value of a fresh start in therapy and said she and her family were trying to do the next right thing and what is best for the family. Clark had also written on March 3 that the last couple months had been humbling and that he was fighting for his wife and family every single day.
In her May 17 message, Bates said the move was something the couple had spent a lot of time praying through and processing together. She said she hoped the decision would support healing, peace, spiritual growth and a healthy environment for their children. “It’s not about running or pretending a new place magically fixes everything,” she said, adding that she was excited for new memories, a fresh start and the next season for the family.
The tension in Bates’ account is that the family is trying to move forward without pretending the hurt is gone. She said the last few months have brought more heavy and life-changing moments than she expected, but also that growth can come in the hardest seasons. For now, the answer to the biggest question is clear: Bates and Clark are not starting over by erasing what happened. They are changing their surroundings while still trying to face the damage head-on.
