Ep 425 When Life Keeps Breaking You: A Marriage Story About Illness, Resilience, and Starting Over w/Kate & Mike

Ep 425 When Life Keeps Breaking You: A Marriage Story About Illness, Resilience, and Starting Over w/Kate & Mike

From Marriage Therapy Radio by MTR

May 19, 2026 · 45 min

About this episode

Zach discusses the challenging journey of Kate and Mike as they navigate illness and resilience in their marriage.

Zach sits down with Kate Northrup and Mike Watts, a married couple and longtime business partners who have navigated one of the more quietly grueling partnership stories you'll hear on this show. Kate is an author, podcast host, and creator of the wealth and wellness program Relaxed Money. Mike is her co-founder and the operational engine behind their growing portfolio of ventures. Together they have been a couple since 2011, and by their own account, about eight of those years were genuinely brutal. The episode covers a lot of terrain: a traumatic first birth and a chronically ill newborn, Mike's years-long battle with topical steroid withdrawal that left him dropping 40 pounds and unable to function, two broken bones from separate accidents, a second pregnancy in the middle of all of it, a family that moved nine times in eleven years, and a business they were building through every bit of it. Kate describes reaching a breaking point in 2016 and calling her best friend from a supermarket parking lot to say the marriage might not survive. That call led them to the couples therapist they have worked with ever since. The conversation goes deep on what therapy actually gave them…

People in this episode

Host: Zach

Guests: Kate Northrup, Mike Watts

Topics covered

  • marriage
  • illness
  • resilience
  • therapy
  • partnership
  • business

Keywords

  • marriage therapy
  • chronic illness
  • resilience
  • couples therapy
  • business partnership

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Relaxed Money

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