She’s Pregnant! “19 Kids & Counting”Stars Jessa & Ben Seewald Announce They’re Expecting First Child

"We made a blessing!"
“We made a blessing!”

By Holly Rasmussen

In not-so-surprising reality TV news, Jessa Duggar Seewald has announced that she and her husband Ben Seewald are expecting! Jessa confirmed the big news to People magazine today, stating that she is currently 12 weeks pregnant.

“We are so excited!” she said. “Our due date is November 1st, our wedding anniversary.”

There has been plenty of rumors circulating lately that Jessa was expecting (based on the tell-tale baby bump she’s been sporting in recent pictures). Jessa and Ben had previously denied that they were expecting. As recently as this past weekend, the couple told the crowd at the Southern Women’s Show in Richmond that they had “nothing to report” in terms of pregnancy.

Jessa told the magazine she found she was pregnant when she took a pregnancy test one morning before church. (Of course.)

“I said, ‘Hey Ben! Guess what? Yeah, you’re a dad,'” she told People. “We couldn’t believe it.”

When Jessa spoke at the Southern Women’s show in Memphis last month, it seemed like she and Ben may have wanted to hold off on having a child for a while. She spoke about how they want to adopt and how they want to travel. Yeah, so much for that…for now, anyway.

The couple told People that they still plan to adopt, but they must be married at least two years before they can start the adoption process. (Why waste two precious years of marriage being childless when you can be popping out new members of the Duggar army?!)

Jessa is due in November, meaning she got pregnant sometime in January or February, after a few months of marriage. She did, however, wait longer to get pregnant than her older sister, Jill, who got pregnant with son Israel almost immediately after marrying Derick Dillard in June 2014.

In the interview, Jessa mentioned that she was glad to have taken some time to be with Ben as a married couple before starting a family. (Even if it was only a year from their wedding date, that’s still a while by Duggar standards!)

“I think having this first year together to share our lives, just the two of us, has been special,” Jessa told People. “We are definitely excited to be parents.”

Michelle has been retired, so the girls are picking up her baby-making slack...
Michelle has been retired, so the girls are picking up her baby-making slack…

The couple is still very young: while Jessa is 22, Ben is only 19 currently. According to the couple, Jessa plans to be a stay-at-home mom (of course) and Ben works for Jim Bob.

Before Israel’s birth, all of the Duggar family baby machines—Jill, Jessa and Josh Duggar’s wife, Anna Duggar, were all pregnant at the same time. Anna is due to give birth to her fourth child in July.

“Congrats @JessaSeewald @BenSeewald on your pregnancy!” Anna tweeted today. “It was great to be pregnant together.”

So…many…baby…blessings….

Marjorie Jackson—this is your fate!

Tonight’s episode of ’19 Kids and Counting’, which airs on TLC at 9 p.m., will feature a special message from the couple.

(Photos: Twitter)

10 Responses


  1. Honest to God, I don’t understand why people hate the Duggars so much. Unlike most of the trash this website highlights, the Duggar family is wholesome, financially independent, charity minded, etc. I watch the show weekly and have never felt that the women are vacant or immature. So what if they have as lot of children? I’m a labor and delivery nurse, and I can say emphatically that the world could use more people like the Duggars and much less unmarried, Welfare dependent, incapable leeches. *See various teen mom/16 and pregnant tabs above for examples*


  2. I thought Jessa would do things differently. She seemed to have a mind of her own. But now she’s pregnant, and living in Josh an Anna’s old moldy house. No jobs, just living the Jim bob and Michelle dream. Michelle Duggar and her daughters (including Anna) remind me of the wife on “Christmas Vacation”(cousin Catherine) . Wide eyed, fake smile in adoration of their man. They certainly lack in maturity. They possess the maturity of a 13 or 14 year old girl. That explains a lot about their behavior. So sad to see life pass them by.


  3. I’m not going to lie and say I’m not a little bummed that’s she’s pregnant already. But I also think Jessa and Ben are the couple most likely to do things their way so far. It wouldn’t surprise me if they’d at least paid attention to her cycle to hold off a few months so they could have some alone time. And it’s funny that everyone thinks they have no plans, and that they basically let people and encourage that belief. I think that might be so there’s less resistance when they do make decisions out of the spotlight. On last night’s episode Jessa both had her hair up multiple times and Ben was studying because he’s enrolled in community college. He said he plans to finish college and possibly go to further college for ministry. But he seemed clear to me that he’s working for Jim Bob for now not forever. Fingers crossed.


  4. Yep…..those girls are really making something of themselves! Home skoolin by Jim Bob and his creepy mannequin wife. Looks like the Duggar girls have a degree in reproduction. Not much of a career.


    1. All they know is babies. The sad part is, they don’t even qualify to be daycare center workers. “Home skoolin” and brother/sister parenting, is worth nothing in the real world. I hope the Duggar girls have good husbands, because they have nothing to fall back on. Smile and take the abuse, the choices out there would never be available to them. Jim Bob, will never protect his daughters. He will teach them to endure.


  5. So surprised….NOT! what would surprise me is if one of the kids actually go to college and get a degree.


  6. I was actually holding out hope that they would hold off on having kids for a little while but of course when you don’t use protection….it also amazes me that they still say they are suprised when they find out when they are pregnant. like tf do you expect???


    1. Wait till the tv show ends, speaking engagements dry up, and they are relegated to being forgotten, she wont be so smug then. Married to a boy who has no education (neither does she), and no prospect for employment that don’t include the words, “Would you like fries with that”.

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