It’s been just over three years since the Duggar Family was all over the headlines, thanks to eldest son Josh Duggar being sentenced to over 12 in prison for receiving and possessing child sex abuse materials. In that time, the famous family has changed a lot, something Jinger Duggar Vuolo and her husband Jeremy reflected on during a recent episode of their podcast.
While discussing their most-recent trip back to Duggarville in Arkansas, Jinger and Jeremy talked about how far the family has come in recent years, despite the struggles they have faced.
“You know, it’s a really special family,” Jeremy said. “Like, it’s a really fun family. They’ve been through a lot these last few years, the Duggars have. It seems like everyone’s in a really good place.”
“Everyone’s had to work through things in their own ways,” Jeremy continued, later adding, “Things are in a really good place with our family now.”
While Josh remains in prison (and recently had his release date pushed back again), other members of the family are doing well, despite the very public turmoil and hurt that Josh and his antics caused.
During the podcast, Jinger and Jeremy also discussed how different the Duggar home is now, compared to how it was when most of the 19 kids still lived at home. The “Big House”— which was once loud, messy and filled with kids— is now clean and quiet.
“You have maybe five kids who live there now,” Jinger said. “And they’re all grown…[the youngest] Josie is, what, 15?… Jordyn she’s grown up. Jenny’s grown up. [Johanna’s] grown up.”
“…When I left, that was a long time ago,” Jinger said. “It was eight-and-a-half years ago and those little kids are all grown up. And it’s hard for me to picture the little kids as teenagers and as adults now.”
Although the Duggar home now lacks kids, Jinger said it does have new residents: a whole farm of goats, chickens, cows and other animals.
Earlier this year, Jinger opened up about her sometimes-strained relationship with her parents, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar. She stated that her relationship with her parents is complicated, particularly since Jinger has penned several books slamming the Institute of Basic Life Principles (IBLP), the religious institution Jinger’s parents raised her under.
“There are definitely difficulties, things that we don’t see eye-to-eye on,” Jinger said during an interview in January. “I think that almost any family will have places where they disagree on things. But at the end of the day, I have nothing but love for them.”
During the same interview Jinger was asked about the current state of her relationship with her eldest brother Josh– who is currently living that three-hots-and-a-cot life in federal prison.
“I haven’t spoken to him– at all— since he’s been in [prison],” Jinger said at the time. “I think that, prior to [him going to prison], we had opportunities to speak to him, whenever he’s gone through his problems. And I’ve said all I need to say and now I just commit it to prayer, and pray that his life will be changed.”
You can watch the full clip of the podcast episode below.
(Photos: BOP; Instagram; YouTube)
5 Responses
Whoever did the MS Paint like prison bars on the photo of the creep is a genius. Specifically the slightly janky bar that makes clear how little he and his tears are worth.
Good work.
@ByeFelecia– thank you for recognizing my expert MS Paint work. Who needs photoshop? -The Ashley
I have always liked Jinger, and I still do, to some degree. I’m glad for her that she got away from her family, at least for a bit, and has dropped much of the cult she grew up in. That said, it’s a bit scary that the older she gets the more she sounds like, and defends, her parents. Some of her other siblings are the exact opposite, as the older they get, the more they realize just how fucked up their upbringing was (and parents are). She’s headed in the wrong direction by constantly defending her parents the way she has been the last couple of years. She didn’t do that as much in the beginning when she left home-and it was a breath of fresh air.
I really do hope someday she realizes prayer doesn’t fix everything, or, really, anything, and her children deserve a life that doesn’t include believing you can pray all the bad away. It’s only going to send them mixed messages should something bad ever happen to them (not that anyone wants it to, of course, and I don’t just mean serious bad things, but any!). That sort of belief instills the “say nothing” and “it’s your fault” mindset that’s far more prevalent than it should be. Jinger and even Jeremy were both raised with that mindset, and it’s clear she hasn’t let it go, I doubt he has either.
The Ashley’s photo captions 🤣🤣
I commend her for breaking free from her highly toxic and pedo-sympathetic family, But you simply cannot pray pedophilia away. Pedophiles do not change, they adapt. They are sick individuals who cannot be cured or helped. It is a sick urge that they cannot control because of mental defect. The only thing you can do to protect other people is to keep them locked away. I hope to Moses he never gains unsupervised access to his children ever again. He shouldn’t even get supervised visits. Cretin.