Joy Duggar Forsyth Talks About the ‘Counting On’ Cancellation; Reveals She & Husband Austin Prayed Over Her Decision to Wear Pants & More

“Stay tuned for my next video where I install an in-ground swimming pool, while also giving birth.”

The Duggar family may no longer grace our TV screens giving us hours of content that is unintentionally cringey, and at times, downright confusing, but fortunately we have shameless Duggar Family YouTube channels to fill the void.  

Case in point: former Counting On star Joy Duggar Forsyth, who took to her and husband Austin Forsyth‘s channel this week to deliver a riveting Q&A video while doing some manual labor.

For those of you who are either not interested in hearing Joy ramble for 20 minutes or not in need of a tutorial on Ikea cabinet assembly, The Ashley has picked out some of the gems from Joy’s latest video. Feel free to channel your inner Austin and kickback and enjoy reading Joy’s responses to some burning fan questions. (Joy answered these questions while very pregnant, wrangling two kids and again, assembling a piece of damn furniture.)

On whether or not she misses being on TV:  

“If you thought it was cringey to watch, imagine how we felt making it!”

“I do not miss the TV show,” Joy said. “I think it was best for our family for it to end, but I do miss the film crew that we had. I was with some of those guys since I was like, six, and so for me, seeing them on a weekly basis and then not seeing them was really weird.” 

TLC cancelled ‘Counting On’ in June 2021, months after Josh Duggar‘s arrest. Josh is currently serving a 151-month prison sentence at Federal Correctional Institute (FCI) Seagoville near Dallas, Texas, for receiving child sex abuse materials (CSAM). 

Disgraced Duggar spawn Josh, in one of his many mugshots…

Joy said “it was best” for the Duggar family to no longer appear on TV when their show was cancelled; however, she said she would have been OK if someone had pulled the plug on it sooner.

“I think it would have been best if we probably would have stopped before then,” she said.  

On why she now wears pants, after only wearing skirts and dresses her whole life:

“Have you ever tried re-shingling a roof in a denim skirt!? It ain’t fun, y’all!”

Like some of her sisters, Joy has recently jumped on the pants trend despite being raised to exclusively wear dresses and skirts. As those familiar with the Duggars know, females within the family’s religious cult, the Institute of Basic Life Principles (IBLP) are encouraged to follow certain rules, such as dressing modestly and keeping their hair long.

As for her decision to ditch the dresses and don some denim, Joy said it was something she and Austin prayed about “for a long time,” and was even a conversation that began within their first year of marriage.

Joy, on finally being comfortable…

“It was something we talked about on and off for the last, like, three or four years,” she continued, revealing that she spent a lot of time “digging deep into the Bible” on the matter because it wasn’t something she was “super-persistent about studying” after wearing skirts for so long.

“I don’t know, I just wasn’t in a rush,” she said. “ … But really [in] the last year we really prayed about it and felt like there isn’t anything in scripture that’s black and white on dress and it talks a lot about modesty, but I feel like you can be modest and wear pants and so that’s kind of where we came to. I do try to be modest in wearing pants, like, not [wearing] things too tight or too short.” 

Joy added that she and Austin believe the decision for her to wear jeans/pants “is okay for our family and where we are.” 

On how Austin feels about Joy broadcasting about their life on YouTube: 

“I’ve got to make money to support all these blessings somehow!”

At times, Austin has appeared downright annoyed while filming content, whether it be for his and Joy’s YouTube channel or the Duggar family’s now-cancelled TLC show, but Joy insists her curmudgeon hubby is taking one for the team and simply trying his best.

“I don’t think he likes it, but he’s like, ‘whatever makes you happy, babe,’ so he goes along with it,” she said. “Which, I’m sure you all can tell, but he is getting way more comfortable in front of the camera because it’s now like, a weekly thing that we do.” 

“Put that camera down and get back to sweeping the chimney, Joy.”

Joy added that filming has become “a lot easier” for Austin because they both have control over what kind of content they share with the public.

“So for that reason, I think he’s way more chill with it, which is funny [because] before, he would get in front of the camera and like, freeze and be super short and not know what to say,” she said. “He’s getting a lot better but he doesn’t love it.”

On how much she sees her sisters these days:

“Is that even, like, legal?”

You may assume that handywoman Joy never gets a day to max and relax without blessings kids crawling all over her or Austin delegating a new list home improvement projects, but you would be wrong. In fact, Joy gets a whole day off–- sometimes TWO!–- every couple of months.  

#Blessed

“Since [Austin] works for himself, his schedule is pretty flexible and so I get quite a bit of time, I’d say that like, probably like one or two days every couple of months, that we get to go [do something] and I’ve gone on mom trips with some of my friends and sister-in-law and that’s been really fun, too,” she said. “So I’ve been very spoiled in that area.” 

On how many more kids she wants to have:

“Let me expel this Spawn ‘o’ Austin first before we start talking about another one!”

In the video, Joy revealed that she is currently 30 weeks pregnant and already planning to birth future additions to the Forsyth family. 

“Right now I say, I’ve been saying like, four or five [kids], but we’ll see,” she said, adding that like a true Duggar spawn, she plans to homeschool all of her tatertot-casserole eating youngins. 

You can watch Joy’s full Q&A/furniture assembly video below. 

RELATED STORY: EXCLUSIVE! Josh Duggar Released From Prison Special Housing Unit (SHU) Early After Living with Transgender Cellmate 

(Photos: YouTube) 

7 Comments

  1. I’m sure this has been said before but, did wearing skirts with long hair keep these girls from being molested by their pervy brother? nope.
    Also, I can’t say I’ve ever read any of the bible but, does it say that women need to wear skirts?


    1. No. Many religious groups have translated it to be such. The duggars cult is specifically pulling from deuteronomy that says The woman shall not wear that which pertaineth unto a man, neither shall a man put on a woman’s garment: for all that do so are abomination unto the LORD thy God….thus a woman wears skirts and a man wears pants. As for the long hair in corinthians if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him? {15} But if a woman have long hair, it is a glory to her: for her hair is given her for a covering,…so long hair on a woman is glorious in the eyes of God, but long hair on a man goes against nature and is a shame in the eyes of God.

      There are some christians that have the women also cover their hair as a submission o authority (also from the corintians) …I’m actually kindof shocked the duggars didn’t go for this too


  2. It’s so sad to see her spark completely gone. How sad that just because she was born into this particular family in this particular religion/cult, it was inevitable that it would get snuffed out.
    She was so full of life and spunkiness and had so much potential.


  3. If she REALLY only wants two more children…how will that work with them not using protection?! You married VERY young Joy, you think your husband will just leave you alone just because of health problems you used to have with pregnancy in the past?

    Joy prob married the worst out of them…she could have been a tomboy and marry a like-minded chill guy…yet she married a momma’s boy (who remembers Forsynths awful TV Show?) who made you pray about such a frivolous thing as wearing pants. I worry for Joy the most.


  4. It’s odd to think of these Duggar sons / sons-in-law being the head of a household. They all seem like pre-teen, horny, wanna be men. Who probably have to call Jim’s Boobs to see if they can buy a can of paint to use on a kitchen.


  5. Imagine needing to discuss with your husband if you can or can’t wear some clothes and thinking you are spoiled because you get “one or two days every couple of months” to hang out with your sisters.
    These girls are so brainwashed that can’t even realize how sad their lives are

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