Hygiene apparently wasn’t a big deal in the Duggar household, because, according to Joy and Jinger Duggar, their husbands were shocked by the girls’ lack of cleanliness after their weddings.
Joy recently appeared on The Jinger & Jeremy Podcast to discuss what surprised them after getting married. As ‘Counting On’ fans know, both Joy and Jinger married young (Joy was 19 and Jinger was 22), and they lived at home at Casa de Duggar until they were hitched.
According to Joy, her now-husband Austin Forsyth was unhappy with Joy’s lack of hygiene even before they got married. Joy admitted that, prior to marrying Austin, she didn’t take daily showers or wash her hair frequently.
“Some days you don’t feel dirty,” she insisted. “…I did not care that much. [I was like], ‘Hygiene? Ehh.'”
When asked what the biggest adjustment she had to make once she was married, Joy said it was realizing she now had to shower every night to make Austin happy.
“That sounds crazy, doesn’t it?” she said.
Joy went on to say that— when she was living at the Duggar Compound pre-marriage— Austin had to inform her that she would need to consistently wash herself once they got hitched.
“Jokingly, he was like, ‘You know when we get married, we’re gonna shower every night! We’re gonna be clean!'” she said. “He let me know his expectations and I was like, ‘Ok, fine.'”
Joy insisted that, even now, Austin is a “germaphobe” because he washes his hands frequently and sometimes showers twice a day in the summer.
Jinger also stated that the Duggar Family’s hygiene habits (or lack thereof) were a surprise to her husband, Jeremy Vuolo, when they got married.
“The hygiene thing has improved with Jeremy [in my life],” Jinger insisted. “…he has improved my hygiene majorly. We won’t even get into all the hygiene things because it’s too much to talk about.”
“I still don’t wash my hair [often], Joy,” Jinger admitted.
“The hygiene thing, it’s massive in [Jeremy’s] eyes,” Jinger said.
Jinger and Joy seemed a bit reluctant to elaborate on what other hygiene-related things their husbands were unhappy about upon marrying them.
“We’re not going there yet!” added Joy.
This is not the first time Jinger and Joy spoke about the Duggar Family’s lack of showering. During a 2024 episode of Jinger’s podcast, Jinger and Joy stated that getting a regular, hot shower was a rarity when they were growing up, due to the fact that so many people were living in very small homes.
“I think when we were younger that was more of a problem because we only had two bathrooms in most of our rental homes,” Jinger said. “There was constantly a line and the water would not stay hot very long, so if you wanted to have a hot shower, you needed to be one of the first two or three in there.”
You can listen to Joy and Jinger’s full podcast episode here.
RELATED STORY: Amy Duggar Believes Her Uncle Jim Bob “Still Controls” His Adult Children: “They Follow Blindly”
(Photos: TLC; YouTube; Instagram)
Yuk.
Why would you share this info with the world?!
Good point.
I just came here to say that you do need to shower daily. Every other day for an adult person is not sufficient. It’s gross. Please stop the misinformation.
Joy never seemed clean, the bottom of her feet often looked dirty. Must not have bothered ole JB, he kept pumping out those kids…
🤢 Does anyone else remember when the Duggars had to run a 5k in blue jeans? Ill bet they didnt shower after that either…
A lot of people don’t shower daily. I do in the summer, but every other day in the winter. I have fine hair like Joy’s so I wash it once or twice a week.
However, it’s very telling that the Duggar kids’ habits developed out of a lack of resources/showers available. Shameful on the parents.
Also, Austin should NOT be controlling Joy in terms of daily showers.
🤮
I’m not sure about this. Part of me feels like this is the men projecting unrealistic expectations on them. It’s quite normal not to wash your hair every day if you have a hair type that can tolerate it. I feel like they were still clean, but maybe not showered and shaved and shiny every single day
Um I call shenanigans. I thought they all were given a special book about all the cleansing of your no-no parts in preparation for your wedding night. Showering sure but there is now way they weren’t prepared, Thank You Michelle wrote the book.
The more I hear JB and M were abulusive parents and did take care of their children
A+ captions on the evils of pants and prison hygiene!
Anything rather than getting a real job or downgrading her lifestyle. Imagine outing yourself and your sister like this. This isn’t something we needed to know.
You couldn’t torture this information out of me.
When hygiene is an issue for your family, YOU HAVE TOO MANY CHILDREN! And basically having to “fight” to get a hot shower…ridiculous. I don’t even want to get into when girls got their periods. (Hope Mama Duggar at least supplied them with enough products when time came)
You don’t need to shower every day to keep clean, you wash up your whole body with a cloth and some soap, no need to smell. Also, I have long hair and don’t wash it every day. But, of your hair looks dirty or feels dirty sure you didnt wash it even ones a week.
This is crazy, if they smell or where dirty, this is a lack of hygiëne that cannot be fixed with only taken a shower. Even in the shower you need to wash your body and certain area’s.
Thats the problem, they want all these kids but can’t take care of all of them. Sometimes I wonder, without the TLC money, the kids wouldve begged on the streets for money for food.
Mama Duggar didn’t teach them about inside thoughts either.
Yeah I am disgusted also,didn’t need to read any of this.
Well they growing up, they really didn’t have a reason to be super clean. There were too many of them to shower. Daily, and they were pretty secluded, they were all homeschooled, so I’m sure daily showers, we’re just not a priority. I do wonder why their mother wouldn’t have discussed the importance of keeping your body clean. Especially when you became the age of puberty and being a teenager and then moving on to having a boyfriend or a husband seems kind of like a fell on the mother’s part
This is so foul… and her saying her husband is a germaphobe because he washes his hands and sometimes showers twice in a day reiterates how feeble the Duggar’s are.
I am… disgusted