Jinger Duggar made a rare public comment about her incarcerated brother Josh Duggar during a recent podcast appearance. 

The Counting On alum was a guest on the Feb. 27 episode of The Deep End With Lacrae podcast. She opened up about growing up in a family that followed the tenets of the ultra-conservative Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP). She also spoke about how she began to reevaluate those beliefs when Josh was arrested for possessing material depicting child sexual abuse. 

The ‘Counting On’ star says she grew up in a ‘cult-like’ environment   

During her chat with host Grammy-winner Lecrae Moore, Jinger discussed filming her family’s TLC reality show 19 Kids and Counting and how her parents viewed the show as an opportunity to spread their religious beliefs to a wider audience.  

“We held to this teacher as a prophet sent from God,” she explained, referencing disgraced IBLP leader, Bill Gothard and the “cult-like” environment in which she was raised. 

Gothard’s rules were incredibly strict and designed to give parents clear guidelines for protecting and isolating their children from what he saw as negative outside influences. 

“So the girls would wear skirts only, not listen to any music with drums, you couldn’t work outside the house [if you were a woman],” she explained. 

Jinger Duggar reflects on a difficult time for her family after Josh’s arrest  

But as the Duggar family’s profile grew and Jinger got older, she began to question some of what she had been taught. That intensified when her family faced scrutiny when Josh’s abuse of several of his siblings when he was a teen was revealed, and later when he was arrested on child pornography charges in April 2021. 

“It was not until later on when we were walking through a lot of difficulties publicly, where one of my brothers made decisions that were very, very bad and that landed him in prison,” Jinger explained. “In that time, I realized people are looking at this as Christianity … but this is not what the gospel is about. Somebody needs to speak up.”

“People were saying, ‘If this is Christianity, I want nothing to do with it,” she added. “At that point, it became a matter of not allowing myself to remain silent.” 

Jinger went on to write a book, Becoming Free Indeed, about how she came to reject the IBLP principles under which she was raised and adopt a new attitude about her Christian faith. 

Jinger Duggar says she hasn’t spoken to Josh in years 

Since Josh’s arrest, Jinger has generally remained quiet about her brother’s crimes. But after he was convicted on multiple child pornography charges in December 2021, she and her husband Jeremy Vuolo did issue a statement. 

“We are saddened for the victims of horrific child abuse. We are also saddened for Josh’s family, his wife and precious children,” they wrote on Instagram.

“Josh claims to be a Christian … We are thankful to God for exposing Josh’s actions and to a legal system committed to protecting the innocent and punishing the guilty in this case. We are grateful for justice,” they added.

In a 2023 interview with Tamron Hall (via YouTube), she said she hadn’t spoken to Josh in years and that she did not believe he had “truly changed.”

Josh is currently serving a 12½-year sentence at a federal prison in Texas. He is scheduled for release in October 2032.  

How to get help: In the U.S., call the RAINN National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 1-800-656-4673 to connect with a trained staff member from a sexual assault service provider in your area. 

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