Jinger and Joy Duggar recently discussed how hard it’s been on them to continuously get hit with the legal scandals of their brothers and family members.

On the most-recent episode of The Jinger & Jeremy Podcast, Joy joined her older sister to discuss how they’ve managed to find happiness, despite the fact that their worlds keep imploding with Duggar Family drama. (As fans know, the girls’ oldest brother Josh is currently in prison for receiving child sex abuse materials (CSAM), while their brother Joseph is preparing to go on trial for child molestation— a scandal that broke in March with Joseph’s arrest.)

“Family stuff has probably been the other thing,” Joy said when asked about the hardest periods of her life. “Like, we’ve had wave after wave of just sickening, horrible things happening.”

(Joy named the 2019 tragic loss of her daughter Annabelle during her 20th week of pregnancy as the other darkest time in her life.)

Joy— who was particularly close to Joe and his wife Kendra— detailed how hard she was hit by the surprise arrests of her brothers.

“And it really just sends me into a spiral,” Joy said. “Those have been really hard seasons, and I feel like I’m coming out of that finally with this last run we went through of family stuff. It just feels like, you know, sin is so dark and so heavy. It’s hard to find true joy… it’s like, happiness is circumstantial.”

Joy stated that her kids help her find some happiness while going through things like Joe’s and Josh’s scandals. However, “it is really hard to find joy in those hard, hard moments,” she said. 

Joy went on to call the period after giving birth to her son, Gunner, in 2023 “one of the darkest points” in her life, due to her suffering from post-partum depression and “a lot of family stuff going on” at that time.

(Gunner was born in May 2023. One month later, the bombshell documentary, “Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets” premiered on Amazon. It featured Joy’s sister Jill Dillard— whom Joy was very close to growing up— and others talking in-depth about the Duggar family. In September of that year, Jill and her husband Derick released their tell-all book, which caused quite a stir within the family. These are the things Joy is likely referring to.) 

Joy also admitted to going through a spiritual awakening during this period. 

“I was also at a point where I was like, ‘I need to face these hard questions that I’ve had in the back of my mind for years,” she said.

Jinger also talked about having trouble coping with things like the “family issues” that have come on suddenly. 

“There have been so many seasons and trials that I did not expect,” Jinger said. “Like, especially when it’s related to, you know, people that you love and even in your family. I don’t know. That stuff hits me harder.” 

This is not the first time Jinger and Joy have discussed how Joe’s arrest has affected them. Back in May, the sisters did a podcast episode together in which they opened up about Joseph’s “heartbreaking and deeply disturbing” charges. 

“I feel like every day it’s different and I think that it’s probably been the hardest time I’ve ever gone through, honestly … I think we’re all grieving in different ways,” Joy told Jinger in May, adding that she had “really been struggling.”

“You can’t plan for something like this,” Jinger told Joy. “ … it’s so tough.” 

Jinger and her husband Jeremy Vuolo also addressed the topic of Joe’s arrest in a short podcast episode recorded in March, where a visibly upset Jinger told listeners, “I did not think my heart could break like it has.” In a follow-up podcast episode, Jinger claimed that Joe’s arrest had “reopened wounds from the past”– something she also told fans during an Instagram Q&A in April. 

As The Ashley previously reported, Joe was arrested in March after a young girl disclosed in a forensic interview that she had allegedly been sexually abused multiple times while on a family vacation with Joe in 2020. (The girl was nine years old at the time.) Joe is now facing two counts of lewd and lascivious behavior in Florida.

He has pleaded not guilty to both charges and is due back in court later this month.

You can watch Joy and Jinger’s full podcast below.

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(Photo: YouTube; Washington County Sheriff’s Dept.)