Jinger Duggar Admits That Her Relationship With Her Parents Is "Not Perfect"
19 Kids and Counting alumni Despite their differences, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar are cherished by Jinger Duggar.
"I am appreciative of my childhood." It was not flawless. During an appearance on Matt and Abby Howard's "Unplanned" podcast on Wednesday, June 12, Jinger, 31, shared a multitude of challenges that she encountered during her upbringing. However, she ultimately expressed her gratitude for her parents.
She continued, “I love them, we have differences, everything’s not perfect between us, but I think that at the end of the day, I love them and I know that they know that.”
Jinger also recalled informing her family that she had authored a book that chronicled her upbringing under the fundamentalist Christian doctrines of the Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP).
"It was difficult to engage in those conversations with them," she disclosed. "I am obligated to do so, regardless of whether they are amenable to the idea."
Jinger ascended to prominence on her family’s TLC reality series, 19 Kids and Counting, which premiered in 2008 and lasted for seven seasons. In 2015, the program was terminated following the revelation that Josh Duggar, Jinger's sibling, had sexually assaulted numerous females, including some of his sisters, during his adolescent years.
Jinger’s 2023 memoir, Becoming Free Indeed: Disentangling Faith From Fear, avoided discussing about the interior workings of her family. She told the podcast presenters she had a “clear conscience” because the book focused primarily on her experience with IBLP rather than family drama.
“I chose to write my book from the perspective of the theology being the driving force, because I thought, ‘If my mom reads this, if my dad reads this, if my siblings read this, how are they gonna take it?’” she explained. “You can be offended that I say [IBLP founder] Bill Gothard is a false teacher, but I don’t want you to be offended over a petty thing that I might’ve said about you. So, I chose to keep it concentrated on the issues of the teaching that I was raised in [and] to keep it more broad where if anybody reads this coming out of a detrimental teaching, they can be brought out of their teaching too.”
In Becoming Freed, Jinger confessed that she “never expressed an opinion” during her first year of marriage to husband Jeremy Vuolo due to being taught she “needed to perform” for her prospective spouse to “keep him faithful.” Vuolo, 36, encouraged her to stand up for herself.
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“He gently encouraged me to speak my mind and let him know if I didn’t agree with something — and to not apologize for that. He didn’t want me to perform or be false. He wanted me to be myself,” she wrote. “He wanted me to think for myself and figure out what my convictions were and what I liked and disliked.”
Jinger and Vuolo sealed the knot in 2016 and share daughters Felicity, 5, and Evangeline, 3. They appeared in the 19 Kids and Counting spinoff Counting On from 2015 to 2020. TLC officially severed ties with the Duggar family in 2021 after Josh, 36, was arrested for receiving and possessing child pornography. He is currently serving a 12.5 year penitentiary sentence following his May 2022 sentencing.
Jinger and Vuolo currently reside in Los Angeles, a significant difference from the modest community in Arkansas where Jinger grew up. Although Jinger said on Wednesday that it’s “bittersweet” to be away from her family, it has its advantages as well.
“It’s also been healthy for us to just be away and be our own family and grow and learn together,” she said. “We’re on a family group message with my family and so there’s always something going on. So, I can see what my family’s up to.” The reality TV personality added that she attempts to contact her mom “regularly” and speaks to all of her older sisters “often.”