The cast of "Counting On" is moving on -- and in the case of the Duggar and Dillard families, they
may be moving apart. Here's what's happened to the "Counting On" clan since the series' cancellation.
Duggar viewers are well aware of the scandal that ended it all. In April 2021,
the eldest Duggar child, 33-year-old Josh, was arrested on charges of receiving and
possessing child sexual abuse material. He posted bond and was released, and has spent
the intervening months hiding out at the rural Arkansas home of some close family friends.
Why not at his own home? Because, according to the Daily Mail, a judge ordered him not to be in the
presence of his six children without his wife, Anna, present, and not to be in the presence of
any other children at all. Kind of an impossible order to follow when you live on Duggar grounds.
In late September 2021, Josh was seen for the first time since his April arrest.
People reported that he was photographed leaving court after a judge denied several
motions filed by his legal team to suppress evidence as well as one motion to have the
case dismissed entirely. Josh has pled "not guilty" to both charges leveled against him.
He would face up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each count, if convicted,
for a possible sentence of 40 years. His trial is scheduled to begin in November 2021.
While the charges leveled against Josh Duggar may be enough to break up most marriages,
The Sun reported that Anna, his wife of over a decade, was standing by him. An unnamed inside
source told the outlet that Anna had practically moved into the home of Josh's close family
friends. Anna was allegedly "struggling" with Josh's arrest and placing blame on everyone,
from parents Jim Bob and Michelle to the Biden administration, for the trouble he's in.
Unsurprisingly, this finger-pointing has led to some tensions within the extended family.
The Sun alleges that Anna has had a falling out with the Duggar parents and has essentially
isolated herself from various members of the clan, refusing to speak to them. She reportedly believes
that if they had handled his first molestation scandal better, he wouldn't be in trouble again. A
rep for the family declined to comment on whether or not the reports of family discord are true.
Things haven't been all bad in the Duggar universe since their TV time was cut short. Beyond the
courtroom, there's been plenty to celebrate, including the marriage of Jed Duggar and his new
wife Katey. In April 2021, the couple surprised fans by walking down the aisle. According to Jed's
Instagram post, they'd been quietly courting for about a year before taking the plunge. He wrote,
"Katey, the thought of sharing the rest of my life with you makes me the happiest man in the world!"
It seems Jim Bob and Michelle were on board with the union,
writing on the family Instagram account,
“We are overjoyed about adding a new daughter-in-love to our family!!"
This was the first Duggar wedding that was truly private. There seemingly wasn't a camera crew
or a single member of the paparazzi present to document the day. This just
goes to demonstrate how much has changed for the family since their headline-dominating heyday.
Weddings aren't the only way the Duggars are growing their already-massive
family. They're adding grandchildren, of course! Five months after they tied the knot,
Jed and Katey Duggar announced they were expecting, captioning their Instagram photo,
"She tested positive, but not for COVID."
The couple seems to be over the moon about their,
quote, "almost instantaneous" conception, as they called it on YouTube. However, critics,
including Katie Joy of "Without a Crystal Ball," were less than thrilled about the
way the couple shared the news, calling the COVID joke both tasteless and insensitive.
Jed and Katey's baby, due in spring 2022, joins a host of other Duggar grandbabies,
including Jessa and Ben Seewald's addition, a daughter named Fern. Born in July 2021,
right after "Counting On" was canceled, Fern was an unexpected but happy surprise for the couple,
who had suffered a pregnancy loss just months earlier. Eldest daughter-in-law
Anna also announced she was pregnant with her seventh child, a little girl, in spring 2021.
Not all baby news has been happy news in the Duggar family. In October 2021,
Jill Dillard announced on her Instagram page that she'd suffered a miscarriage.
In the one-minute video clip, Jill and her husband Derick emotionally await pregnancy test results
and tell their two children, Israel and Samuel, that they'd be getting a little sibling. Then,
they quickly find out that they were miscarrying.
On their family blog, the Dillards shared more information,
writing that they'd miscarried only a few days after the final video clip was filmed.
The couple has been open in the past about the fact that they use birth control,
which is a very un-Duggar practice.
“We use birth control, but we prefer to use non-hormonal birth control methods.
Just because we don't want to use anything that could potentially cause an abortion.”
In a 2020 YouTube Q&A about the topic, they told fans they did want to have more kids someday.
Here's to hoping more little Dillards arrive soon!
Though news of Jill and Derick Dillard's split with the rest of the Duggar family
broke years before "Counting On" was canceled in June 2021, it seems the breach hasn't been mended
just yet. The details of the initial falling out have always been fuzzy — with the Dillards
themselves never confirming exactly what led to the rift, only saying on their YouTube channel,
"We're not on the best terms with some of my family. We've had some disagreements and stuff,
but we're working toward healing, definitely, and restoration."
Judging by some comments from the couple, it seems that healing and restoration
may not be going very well. They wrote on their family website,
“We first heard of the cancellation when both a friend & a cousin texted us
after seeing TLC's statement online. We do not know how long the cancellation had been planned."
The phrasing seems to suggest that communications between the Dillards
and the larger family are so strained that the life-changing news was never shared
behind closed doors. Fans might wonder if the Duggars and Dillards are even talking at all.
Jana Duggar, the oldest daughter of Jim Bob and Michelle, turned 31 in 2021. Within the
family's fundamentalist Christian community, she's inching increasingly closer to being
considered a spinster, but she doesn't seem too bothered by her relationship status.
“There have been different guys come along and ask, but yet
it’s just not — they haven’t been, ya know, the right one.”
In fact, in many ways, she appears to be reveling in her singleness. Especially
because her age seems to grant her some privileges that are usually reserved
for married Duggar women, like wearing pants and going places without a chaperone in tow.
Several of her Instagram photos show the brunette beauty wearing pants out and about in public,
everywhere from football games to Las Vegas craft markets. This seemingly innocent apparel
choice lies in sharp contrast to her parents' rule that women must wear skirts and dresses.
It’s a belief that stems from their interpretation of a Bible verse in Deuteronomy which says,
"A woman shall not wear a man's garment."
The pants are a huge contrast to the nearly three decades Jana spent wearing those more "feminine"
items of clothing. Additionally, Jana may not be bound by the same chaperone rules as the other
Duggar kids. She traveled to Chip and Joanna Gaines' Magnolia destination with her friend,
Laura DeMasie, and her brother, Jason Duggar. A commenter on Jason's Instagram post said it was,
quote, "Kind of sad" that Jana wasn't allowed to go out and about without a chaperone.
Jason set the record straight about his older sister by replying, in quotes, "she can!"
In their same statement about "Counting On" ending, Jill and Derick Dillard wrote:
"During our years on the show, we had many great experiences with the network,
and several of the crew members have even become like family to us! However,
we also faced many pressures and some unexpected challenges which forced us to step away from the
show in an effort to gain more control over our own lives and to do what was best for our family."
Surprisingly, the Dillards aren't the only ones who seem happy to
have stepped away from the series and the fame that comes with it. On
a 2021 episode of the "Dinner Party with Jeremy Fall" podcast, Jinger Vuolo chatted
more openly about the various ways the show negatively impacted her mental health.
She said on the podcast that her time on TV often led to her worrying about other people's opinions
of her, remarking that she wrestles often with the complications of fame. Jinger also discussed
the difficulty of forming friendships in adulthood outside of her family. She emotionally explained,
"It's hard sometimes when people don't understand your life [...] It's
something that I think is definitely overlooked when people think about fame."
Though the star shared that she's grateful, it sounds like spending your entire childhood
and adolescence in front of the camera isn't as perfect as we may have all imagined it to be.
There are a number of things many of us do regularly, like watch movies, dance,
or listen to secular music, that are strict no-nos for the Duggar family.
But other hobbies, like traveling the world, are perfectly acceptable.
Travel-lovers at heart, the Duggars have chronicled many of their vacations on their
TLC shows. They’ve gone everywhere from Japan and Jerusalem to more easily-accessible locations,
including Washington, D.C., and New York City. And just because the cameras have stopped rolling,
that doesn't mean the Duggars have stopped embarking on these adventures. In fact,
they took an RV trip out west and documented the entire thing on the family Instagram account.
The Dillards have been on the move as well, taking a road trip from their native Arkansas to Oregon,
following the Oregon Trail for parts of their journey. They, of course, took fans along for
the ride on their YouTube channel, posting a series of short videos sharing the highlights.
According to The Sun, the Duggars were making about $850,000 a year
from "Counting On." So when the series ended, and the paychecks stopped coming,
they might have felt a financial blow. How have they been making money since, you may ask?
It turns out, there are a number of ways. In Touch Weekly reported that Jim Bob's commercial rental
business brings in a good amount of money for the core family. Many of his sons work for him,
but John David works as a pilot, Joseph as a real estate agent,
and son-in-law Ben Seewald as a handyman. Joy-Anna and her husband Austin bring money in flipping
houses. Jinger and Jeremy host a podcast called "The Hope We Hold," and Jeremy also works as a
pastor. Many of the women of the family also frequently post sponsored content on Instagram
which, given their existing fame, must come at a pretty decent fee.
However, it seems that many members of the family
relied on those "Counting On" checks as their primary source of income.
So, we may see a lot more family members trying out more traditional careers in the near future.
While TLC might be done with the Duggar family, The Washington Post pointed out that the world
might not be. The Duggars certainly have a large fan base. Even towards the end,
the show was topping 1 million viewers for an episode, and many of the family's
individual members maintain large social media presences. This popularity indicates
that regardless of scandals and drama, the family remains commercially viable.
So it's possible that we may find them, in some form, back on our screens in the future,
even if it's only on our computer screens while more of the siblings put out content on YouTube.
Tom Nunan, a professor and former network executive, told the Post,
"Typically, these things [like decisions about who to put on TV]
come down to the executive suites at networks, and down to advertising and sales departments."
Maybe that means that as long as there's money to be made off of the family,
there's always a chance they could make a comeback somehow.
If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault,
help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest
National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).