Jinger Duggar Vuolo recently gave Counting On fans an update on her relationship with her parents, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, and revealed where her relationship currently stands with her incarcerated brother, Josh.
The former TLC reality star— who recently released yet another book about her life in the IBLP cult— talked to Entertainment Tonight about how writing books about her family’s faith has created some strain with some of the Duggars, including her mom and dad.
“It’s complicated,” she said of the current state of her relationship with Jim Bob and Michelle. “There are definitely difficulties, things that we don’t see eye-to-eye on.”
Still, Jinger said she was “very thankful” to be able to go spend time in Duggarville with her family recently. (She and her husband Jeremy Vuolo and their two kids went to Arkansas to celebrate Jinger’s birthday and Christmas in December. In a video posted to the couple’s YouTube channel, she is seen interacting with both her mom and dad, despite the strain in their relationship.)
“It was such a sweet visit– peaceful, so amazing,” Jinger said, adding, “I love my family, more than anything.”
Like her sister Jill Duggar Dillard— who also has a “complicated” relationship with Ma and Pa Duggar— Jinger has openly criticized the way her parents brought her and her 18 siblings up. During a June 2024 appearance on the Unplanned podcast, Jinger admitted that she didn’t think it was right that her parents made her take care of some of her younger siblings, even though she was still a kid herself.
“I think that parents should take care of their kids,” Jinger said. “If you have them, you should take care of them. Kids can help out, learn responsibility in other ways, but maybe not in the motherly aspects of what moms or dads should be doing. You have all these imbalances of kids raising kids. I think that I saw that a lot in the system and I think that that is unhealthy.”
Still, in her new interview with ET, Jinger admitted that she tries to look past the differences she has with her family.
“I think that almost any family will have places where they disagree on things,” she said. “But at the end of the day, I have nothing but love for them.”
Jinger doesn’t have “nothing but love” for every member of the Duggar clan, however. During her interview with ET, she 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. (As fans know, Josh was convicted in December 2021 of receiving child sex abuse materials. He will be caged in the slammer until at least October 2032.)
In the years since Josh got locked up, various members of the Duggar family have visited him, sent him money to buy luxury items in prison and supported him. In her new interview, Jinger made it clear that she is not one of them.
“I haven’t spoken to him– at all— since he’s been in [prison],” Jinger said. “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.”
Jinger said that she does pray for Josh’s family (which includes seven kids and his wife Anna, who is very much still committed to the felonious father of her children.)
“I pray that his life will be changed,” Jinger said of Josh. “That’s all I can do, is just pray for his family, his victims and all of that.”
(Photos: TLC; Instagram)
7 Responses
My kids are 12 years apart, they are MY kids. It is not my older childrens responsibility to parent them (although they still try to)i will ask hey can you get ur sister some water or can you play with ur sister for 15 mins while i make a phone call, but just normal sibling help. I would never assign a kid to a baby to raise.
I just want to punch that Josh Duggar in the thro 8
He’s quite punchable.
I knew he was full of shit when they built their mansion and the interior decorator asked how they’d like to decorate their room and he said,”I’d like some pictures of our forefathers.” Yeah, ok. I get the fundies aren’t going to let you hang Carmen Electra posters over your bed, but cut the shit.
It’s incredibly inappropriate that they asked her about Josh. She should not have to discuss the man who SA her as a child. That was completely tactless
jinger’s absolutely right on the part about her parents making her take care of the other kids, obviously it’s important for kids to learn responsibility but taking care of their siblings should NOT be one of them and if you don’t think anything is wrong with that then you are part of the problem and nothing can make me change my mind on that
Agreed. It’s ok for kids to help now and then with their siblings but to actually raise them and be in charge of them? Absolutely not. If you can’t raise your kids yourself or get help from other adults, don’t have 19 children ffs