Reality star Michelle Duggar has kept some big secrets under wraps over the years.
While Michelle waxes poetic on 19 Kids and Counting about the importance of living
a squeaky clean and honest life, she's been hiding some alleged dirt of her own.
Fans of 19 Kids & Counting might have noticed the
odd fact that Michelle rarely talks about her extended family on-camera.
One might reason that her silence is due to privacy concerns, but that theory doesn't add
up when you consider that Jim Bob's relatives have made numerous cameos on the series. So,
what gives? One likely scenario is that Michelle may be ashamed of her lesbian sister, Evelyn.
Evelyn, who appeared once on the show in 2008, is rumored to be on the outs
with her younger sibling — a revelation that might surprise her family-oriented fanbase.
Evelyn and Michelle reportedly haven't been pictured together since 2014.
If you ask Evelyn's partner of three decades, Sharon Callahan,
the awkward situation might be beyond repair, thanks to Michelle's involvement in the Quiverfull
movement. The Quiverfull movement supposedly preaches anti-LGBTQ views — a suspicion that
Callahan finds concerning. According to The Daily Mail, Callahan said in December 2014,
"We are worried about them.
We have often thought that QuiverFull is a cult. It appears to be brainwashing to me."
Considering Michelle is tight-lipped about pretty much everything besides
her kids' weddings and pregnancies, people were understandably shocked
when she admitted to struggling with bulimia as a young teen.
In a rare moment of candor, Michelle revealed that she became bulimic at age 14
in an attempt to cope with her body image issues. She told People magazine,
"I found out that genetically I could put on weight easily, but with my activities,
gymnastics and cheerleading, it was important for me not to. I would look around and compare
myself to my friends, saying, 'oh my, she's so small,' or 'she has such skinny legs.'"
Her condition grew severe. She went on to say,
"I didn't tell any of my friends what I was going through. I was doing it sometimes on a
daily basis, or sometimes I would go a week. I felt this was the answer to my problems."
"It was destructive for my health and my life."
Luckily, Michelle was able to overcome this serious issue when she met her now-husband,
Jim Bob, at age 16. Michelle revealed that after she told Jim Bob her secret, she was,
in her words, "set free" because he held her "accountable" each time she expressed
a desire to go back to her old habits. The support Jim Bob provided Michelle during
this time is one of the reasons she fell deeply in love with him.
Speaking of Jim Bob, it sounds like he got a little action from Michelle before
the two got hitched. That's right, Michelle broke one of her infamous
courtship rules with Jim Bob pre-marriage. But for those wandering minds out there,
rest assured we're just talking about a kiss. According to Us Weekly, Michelle admitted,
"We did not save our first kiss for our wedding day
and we really regret that we didn't. We really should have."
Of course, a smooch between two people who are dating isn't a big deal for most people. Keep
in mind, however, that this is one of the most conservative couples around. Michelle and Jim
Bob force their kids to take chaperones on their dates. Smacking lips during the dating stage is
a big no-no in Duggarland — even if you plan to spend the rest of your lives together. So,
the fact that Michelle and Jim Bob ignored this rule themselves is pretty remarkable.
You don't need to be a 19 Kids & Counting diehard to know that Michelle prefers
conservative clothing — to put it mildly. From prairie-style dresses to Michelle's controversial
beliefs about dressing modestly, her distaste of revealing outfits is no secret. That being said,
here's a truth bomb for you — Michelle supposedly was a fan of bikinis during her teenage years.
One of Michelle's former neighbors claims Michelle wore skimpy bathing
suits while she mowed the lawn, according to Star magazine. The source revealed,
"[The neighbors] used to complain because she'd mow the lawn in a bikini and wear short skirts.
They were always trying to get her to cover up her legs. And so were her parents."
Needless to say, the ex-neighbor was shocked by Michelle's transformation
from rebel teen to the woman who told TLC:
"By keeping those private areas covered, there's not any 'defrauding' going on.
My kids are taught the definition of defrauding as stirring up desires that cannot
be righteously fulfilled. We don't believe in defrauding others by the way we dress."
"I would need to probably
cover a few more areas of myself so that I wasn't causing someone else to be defrauded."
When the tea-spilling neighbor was asked about Michelle's transformation, he told Star:
"I've seen commercials for the show,
but I never in a million years would've believed that's Michelle!"
One of Michelle's most well-known traits is her soft, baby-like voice.
Sometimes she speaks so quietly that it's hard to make out what she's saying.
Considering how iconic her sweet-sounding mannerisms are, it may surprise you that
she struggles with her temper. According to The Christian Post, Michelle admitted,
"I don't always stay calm. Years ago the Lord really broke my heart about
my anxiousness and my anger. I think we all struggle with that. The feelings
of frustration and anger building up, and how do we deal with that?"
"It's like a walk down memory lane, really."
Apparently, Michelle's anger issues became so overwhelming that she felt
the need to apologize to her kids. She recalled,
"I just began to cry. I said 'I want you children to know that mommy loves you
and I really am a nice person and I don't want you to think I'm this mean mommy.'"
Following Michelle's revelation about her self-described "mean-mommy" ways,
she decided to no longer raise her voice.
"By God's grace I chose to lower my voice and even whisper."
As upfront as Michelle might be about her conservative views,
she's less forthcoming about her family members. Case in point: When her sister,
Kathie Ann Arnold, passed away in March 2013 at age 60, she didn't say one peep about the
sad news publicly. Although it's not clear how Arnold passed or if Michelle attended the funeral,
it seems that this information was intentionally kept a secret. But why?
One possible scenario is that Michelle was never close with Arnold,
a theory that's backed up by a quote from her other sister, Evelyn, who told InTouch Weekly,
"I think my mother and father wanted two different families,
because Michelle and Carol are the second generation.
And the rest of us, the first five, were pretty much grown when they were younger."
If Michelle didn't grow up with Arnold,
it might explain why she chose not to address her passing with fans. Another possibility is
that Michelle wanted to keep it a family matter, rather than a televised event.
Although it's difficult to imagine Michelle with anyone other than Jim Bob,
it's rumored that she dated other guys before they met. Apparently, Michelle's suitors were attracted
to her bubbly persona and cheerleading uniform. One friend from high school told Radar Online,
"[Michelle] was a pretty, popular cheerleader who dated more than a few guys before Jim Bob.
The cheerleaders and football players all hung out and partied together,
and she was part of that group. I can't believe she's changed so much!"
Picturing Michelle as a partying cheerleader is pretty juicy, considering she's adopted
an entirely new way of life. Not only does Michelle abstain from drinking,
but there's no way she would view casually playing the field as acceptable for her own daughters.
It's not necessarily earth shattering news that the Duggars are rumored to hold anti-LGBTQ views.
In fact, Michelle basically confirmed as much when she protested an anti-discriminatory ordinance
protecting the rights of transgender people by recording a robocall against the ordinance.
In the recorded message, she attacked a proposed bill protecting a transgender
person's ability to use public restrooms without restrictions, according to the Fayetteville Flyer.
Although Michelle's ideas about the LGBTQ community aren't too surprising,
fans might find it hard to believe that she was allegedly more open-minded in high school.
A woman who went to high school with her told Radar Online,
"She was honestly one of the loveliest, sweetest people you could ever hope to meet."
Her classmate was reportedly furious about the robocall. The insider added,
"I don't understand what has happened to her heart. [...] When you [use] your words,
actions, money and fame to further discriminate against an already marginalized group of people,
you are a hateful bigot."
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out how Michelle conceived her 19 kids. You
don't end up with a soccer team of kids if you're using contraceptives, right? But as it turns out,
Michelle did use birth control at the beginning of her marriage to Jim Bob.
What's especially interesting to note is that Jim Bob was the one
who spilled Michelle's birth control secret. He wrote in a 2016 blog post,
"Believe it or not, when we first got married we decided we did not want to
have children right away, so Michelle began taking birth control pills. Three
years into our marriage Michelle went off the pill and we had our first child.
Then she went back on the pill, because we heard it was better to space your children out,
but Michelle got pregnant while she was on the pill, and the pill caused her to miscarry."
The idea that birth control can cause a miscarriage has been widely dismissed
as a myth by top medical professionals, but the story isn't over just yet. Jim Bob also
revealed that the couple stopped using birth control because of the miscarriage. He added,
"We were so grieved [...] we had lost our second child [...] We asked God to forgive us, and we
told God we want to follow Him with our lives and receive any blessings He wants to send our way."
Considering Michelle is one of the most religious people on reality television,
you might assume she had a religious past. But shockingly enough, Michelle didn't grow up in a
religious household and she didn't attend church until she was a teenager. She told Love to Know,
"When I was 15, I got saved and committed my life to the Lord. It was the first time
I'd ever heard what Jesus had done for me and I had a hunger to learn about the things of God.
A friend went to the same church Jim Bob went to. She invited me to her church."
Michelle's religious conversion led her into the arms of an already very
religious Jim Bob. She recalled one of their first hangouts, saying,
"He brought me home and we discussed the Bible for
four hours. I remember when he left, I [...] looked up and said, 'Father,
I can't imagine anyone better than this that you have planned for me. He's such a Godly man.'"
Lust can be a powerful thing — you never know when it's going to strike. But Michelle has invented a
way to nip lustful thoughts in the bud: using a code word. In the 2014 book Growing Up Duggar,
the four Duggar daughters revealed that when they encountered, quote, "someone
dressed inappropriately," their family used the code word "Nike" to help the
men immediately stop thinking those kinds of thoughts about women. The Duggar girls wrote,
"That's a signal to the boys, and even to Dad, that they should nonchalantly
drop their eyes and look down at their shoes as we walk past her."
According to a source who spoke to People, the "Nike" code word is powerful enough
that if Michelle utters it, it's always met with immediate action. The source claimed,
"They say it, and all the boys look straight down to the floor every time.
It's like an automatic military thing. Things like that blow my mind."
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