Former Counting On star Joy-Anna Duggar Forsyth took to her YouTube channel over the weekend to do a Q&A with fans that, unsurprisingly, garnered many inquiries related to not only Joy, but also her famous family.
While Joy’s video kicked off with boring questions, Joy went on to respond to a fan who asked if her sisters opening up in their respective books last year had been “difficult” for her, or had even resulted in any “disentangling” on Joy’s part.
As fans of the Duggar Family know, two of Joy’s sisters, Jill Duggar Dillard and Jinger Duggar Vuolo, published books in 2023. Jill and husband Derick Dillard released their tell-all, Counting the Cost, in September, while Jinger’s book, Becoming Free Indeed, was released in late January 2023.
While Jill and Derick’s book revealed to readers the unedited truth about the Duggar family and its TLC shows, Jinger’s memoir targeted the family’s religious cult, the Institute of Basic Life Principles (IBLP), but did not expose much about the Duggar family itself.
Joy noted in her YouTube video that the submitted question about her sisters’ books was “a good one,” before going on to share her reaction to what they had written.
“I feel like any child growing up, you’re always going to, at the teenage years, you’re going to start questioning things,” she said. “You’re going to start having those thoughts of like, ‘Ok, well what do I believe?’ … You’re going to become an individual and I feel like I did that some, but I do think that reading my sisters’ books and, just not even reading their books but just talking to them, specifically Jinger.
“I feel like talking to Jinger before her book came out and talking specifics, I feel like it kind of did rock my world a little bit,” Joy said.
Joy went on to explain that, before reading Jinger’s book, she thought she had “worked through some of the things” that were addressed it in; however, she realized after talking to Jinger that there were some things she hadn’t “specifically thought about.”
“ … I knew I didn’t believe certain things, but I hadn’t actually worked through that and why, so I think that it kind of did shake my world a little bit,” she said, adding that she believes reading her sisters’ books “did jump-start some of those questions” she needed to ask herself. Joy claimed that she and her husband Austin Forsyth are working together to answer some of those questions now.
“ … I think it’s been a good jump-start and, although I think it’s been a hard process to go through, I’m really thankful that I’m going through it when my kids are still young and Austin and I are being able to do this together and really see ‘What do we believe? What does the Bible say?’ and coming to a healthy place of just being able to work though all of that together,” she said.
Joy was also asked by a fan to provide “a Duggar family update” though, she said she didn’t feel like it was her place to do so.
“ … Obviously I’d love to update you on [my siblings’] lives, but out of respect and their privacy– and they can share how much they want to share– I’m not going to share much about their lives,” she said.
Joy did tell listeners that she sees her siblings (though she didn’t reveal which ones) and her parents, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, “a couple times a week.” She also said some of the Duggar family continue to attend church together, though she didn’t provide further details. (According to Monsters & Critics, Joy and Austin confirmed last fall that they are no longer part of the IBLP.)
“I try and FaceTime the [siblings] that do live out of town,” Joy added. “ … But for the most part, everybody’s doing good.”
Watch Joy’s full “Inside My Mind” Q&A below.
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(Photos: YouTube; Instagram; TLC)
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I feel for Joy. I wonder if she will be the first divorced Duggar. Her husband sounds exhausting. Where is that tomboy girl who changed her personality because a boy (not to mention freakin’ Austin!) liked her, it’s just so heartbreaking she changed so much just because a guy wants her to do so and so. I just feel she was crushed and moulded. (And this is coming from a former tomboy who was allowed to live the way she wanted to live…perhaps that’s why I feel bad for her.)