They Met During Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Disaster – Who is Otto Kilcher’s Wife Charlotte Kilcher?

It’s no secret that reality TV is not everyone’s cup of tea when it comes to entertainment, yet it’s possible to find original and compelling shows in this genre. One of those special and rare-to-find reality shows of our time is “Alaska: The Last Frontier”, which follows the members of the Kilchers family as they take care of their homestead and teach us what it’s like to experience life off the grid for real.

While it’s impossible not to grow fond of the Kilchers by seeing their efforts to keep their family’s tradition alive, there’s a lot about them that we haven’t seen on TV. Stay here to learn more about Charlotte Kilcher, including her story with her husband Otto, her origins, what she does for a living, and a lot more!

Who Is Charlotte Kilcher?

The name Charlotte Kilcher is very well known to fans of “Alaska: The Last Frontier”. Ever since the show premiered in 2012, the audience has seen tidbits of the lives of Charlotte and her husband Otto Kilcher on their homestead in an isolated area close to Homer, Alaska, where their family established themselves in the mid-1900s.

Charlotte Irene Kilcher, whose former last name is Adamson, is a native of California who was born on 27 December 1955. She studied Wildlife Biology at the University of California, Berkeley but moved to Alaska in 1978 to work as a researcher, eventually meeting and marrying Otto in the 1990s.

After living in Alaska for most of her life, Charlotte is more than well used to her family’s lifestyle. As Charlotte told TV Shows Ace in 2021, her childhood dream was of living in the countryside to ‘raise goats’, which isn’t as different from the life she now has beside her husband.

Charlotte and Otto’s Story

Since marrying in the 1990s, Otto and Charlotte Kilcher have lived an apparently happy life in the Kilcher family homestead, which they’ve worked hard to keep afloat through self-reliant methods. Not many details are known about Charlotte and Otto’s love story, except that they met during the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill disaster, which she helped clean up as a volunteer.

Before their story together even started, Charlotte and Otto already had plenty of experience when it came to love. For one thing, he’d been married twice before, first to a woman named Olga Von Ziegesar, with whom he was together from 1976 to 1979 when they filed for divorce.

Otto married for a second time in 1980 to Sharon McKemie, with whom he welcomed his sons Levi and Eivin before filing for divorce in 1989. For her part, Charlotte had been previously married to a man named Arthur Roland Short, though it’s unclear how long Charlotte stayed married to him.

It’s known she and Otto were together from 1990 before tying the knot on 25 June 1994.

How Many Children Does Charlotte Have?

Charlotte Kilcher’s oldest son is named Torrey Short, who was born from her first marriage to Arthur Short. Torrey is a yoga teacher at the Spirit Yoga Studios, which he co-owns alongside his wife Dana in San Diego, California. These days, Torrey is an accomplished sportsman whose main activities consist of marathon running and hiking, taking part in important running events around the US, with Charlotte often sharing his accomplishments on social media.

Charlotte’s second son is August Kilcher, who was born in Alaska on 19 April 1997. He’s the only child resulting from Charlotte and Otto’s relationship, and is often featured in episodes of “Alaska: The Last Frontier”. August is very close to his family and his half-brothers, including Levi, Eivin, and Torrey, the latter whom he strongly supports through his marathon-running escapades.

Season Finale tonight on #AlaskaTLF @Discovery. Thanks to family, friends, "filmers" & FANS for a successful season! pic.twitter.com/GsQfgwrGAd

— Charlotte Kilcher (@kilcherfrontier) January 29, 2017

What Does Charlotte Do For A Living?

While “Alaska: The Last Frontier” does a great job of giving us an insight into the lives of the Kilchers, there’s a lot more about them to see off-camera. In the case of Charlotte, she’s a woman of many talents, including her impressive gardening skills which not only produce vegetables for the family’s consumption, but beautiful flowers as well.

Charlotte’s specialty is peonies, with her field getting established on the Kilcher property in 2010. These days, Charlotte’s peony farm has 450 plants and is part of the co-op Alaska Beauty Peony, which she co-founded alongside many other Alaskans who also grow this flower variety.

Charlotte’s peonies are commonly sold at the Kilcher Country shop, which also offers a variety of merchandise locally manufactured by the couple. Nonetheless, Charlotte and Otto are loyal to their self-sufficient lifestyle, despite the many difficulties it entails. For Charlotte, adapting to this life has been a long and challenging path, given how she has maintained her vegetarian lifestyle, despite it not going hand in glove with the Kilchers’ habits of hunting and trapping for food.

Despite keeping the off-the-grid lifestyle of her family, Charlotte is undeniably popular on social media, gaining almost 90,000 followers on Instagram and more than 140,000 followers on Facebook so far.

Although “Alaska: The Last Frontier” hasn’t been renewed since airing its 11th season in late 2022, it’s great to see how much the show helped Charlotte, Otto, and the rest of the Kilchers to have a platform and tell their experiences to the entire world.