19 Kids and Counting alum Jinger Duggar has love for her parents, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, despite their differences.
“I’m grateful for my childhood. It was not perfect. I shared a whole lot of difficulties that I struggled with throughout my childhood, but at the top of the day, I’m grateful for my parents,” Jinger, 31, said during a Wednesday, June 12, appearance on Matt and Abby Howard’s “Unplanned” podcast.
She continued, “I really like them, we’ve got differences, every little thing’s not perfect between us, but I believe that at the top of the day, I really like them and I do know that they know that.”
Jinger also recalled telling her family she’d written a book about her experience growing up with the fundamentalist Christian teachings of the Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP).
“It was hard having those conversations with them,” she shared. “They don’t need to be comfortable about it, nevertheless it’s what I want to do.”
Michelle Duggar and Jim Bob Duggar. D Dipasupil/Getty Images for Extra
Jinger rose to fame on her family’s TLC reality series, 19 Kids and Counting, which premiered in 2008 and ran for seven seasons. The show got here to an end in 2015 when news broke that Jinger’s brother Josh Duggar molested multiple girls, a few of whom were his sisters, when he was a youngster.
Jinger’s 2023 memoir, Becoming Free Indeed: Disentangling Faith From Fear, avoided talking in regards to the inner workings of her family. She told the podcast hosts she had a “clear conscience” since the book focused totally on her experience with IBLP reasonably than family drama.
Jinger Duggar with an inset of her parents Michelle Duggar and Jim Bob Duggar. Kris Connor/Getty Images; Courtesy of Jeremy Vuolo/Instagram
“I selected to put in writing my book from the angle of the theology being the driving force, because I assumed, ‘If my mom reads this, if my dad reads this, if my siblings read this, how are they gonna take it?’” she explained. “You’ll be able to be offended that I say [IBLP founder] Bill Gothard is a false teacher, but I don’t want you to be offended over a petty thing that I’d’ve said about you. So, I selected to maintain it focused on the problems of the teaching that I used to be raised in [and] to maintain it more broad where if anybody reads this coming out of a harmful teaching, they will be brought out of their teaching too.”
Relating to the Duggars, the more members, the merrier — which is why some fans have a tough time keeping track of the famous family. After tying the knot in July 1984, Jim Bob Duggar and Michelle Duggar (née Ruark) welcomed a complete of 19 children, including two sets of twins, and the […]
In Becoming Freed, Jinger admitted that she “never expressed an opinion” during her first yr of marriage to husband Jeremy Vuolo resulting from being taught she “needed to perform” for her future spouse to “keep him faithful.” Vuolo, 36, encouraged her to rise up for herself.
Jeremy Vuolo and Jinger Duggar. Michael Kovac/Getty Images for Discovery Channel
“He gently encouraged me to talk my mind and let him know if I didn’t agree with something — and to not apologize for that. He didn’t want me to perform or be fake. He wanted me to be myself,” she wrote. “He wanted me to think for myself and work out what my convictions were and what I liked and disliked.”
Jinger and Vuolo tied the knot in 2016 and share daughters Felicity, 5, and Evangeline, 3. They appeared within the 19 Kids and Counting spinoff Counting On from 2015 to 2020. TLC officially cut ties with the Duggar family in 2021 after Josh, 36, was arrested for receiving and possessing child pornography. He’s currently serving a 12.5 yr prison sentence following his May 2022 sentencing.
Jinger Duggar and Jeremy Vuolo‘s love story can have been a whirlwind — but their connection is undeniably strong. The couple were introduced through Jinger’s sister Jessa Duggar and her husband, Ben Seewald, who met the previous soccer star in Texas before he visited the Duggar family in Arkansas. Jinger reflected on the early days […]
Jinger and Vuolo currently live in Los Angeles, a giant change from the small town in Arkansas where Jinger grew up. Although Jinger said on Wednesday that it’s “bittersweet” to be away from her family, it has its benefits as well.
“It’s also been healthy for us to simply be away and be our circle of relatives and grow and learn together,” she said. “We’re on a family group message with my family and so there’s at all times something happening. So, I can see what my family’s as much as.” The fact TV personality added that she tries to call her mom “frequently” and speaks to all of her older sisters “often.”
