Some siblings are best friends as children but grow apart as they age. The opposite happened for Jinger and Joy-Anna Duggar. In a candid discussion, they opened up about how being “segregated” as kids affected their relationship. Keep reading for all the details.
Jinger Duggar Reveals Being ‘Segregated’ As Kids
Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar welcomed their first child, Josh, just four years into their marriage. They never stopped having children until 2009 with the birth of their 19th child. The family featured on TLC’s 19 Kids & Counting. The show was canceled after Josh Duggar’s history of molesting several of his younger sisters came to light. The older Duggar siblings starred in a spinoff, Counting On, about having families of their own.
TLC cut all ties with the Duggar family after Josh’s arrest for possessing child pornography materials. His younger brother, Joseph, was recently arrested for molesting a young girl. However, some of the Duggars stay in touch with fans on social media. Jinger co-hosts a podcast with her husband, Jeremy Vuolo. Her sister, Joy-Anna Forsyth, was a recent guest for an episode titled, “So, About Being Sisters.”
The sisters reflected on growing up in such a large family. Jinger Duggar asked her sister if she thought they were close friends growing up. Joy-Anna responded, “I mean, not really. I would say we were close in proximity … the bond was not really there.”
Jinger Duggar agreed, citing the gap in their ages as the reason. The sisters are only four years apart, but in their family, that was significant. “I felt like the age gap was segregated by sections. [Our family was] separated by an age gap of the older kids, the middle kids, the younger kids. I was, kind of, in the older section for many years. The six oldest is what it was,” Jinger said.
However, Joy-Anna had a different take on why they weren’t close as kids.
Joy-Anna Duggar Shares Another Reason Why They Weren’t Close
Joy-Anna, 28, and Jinger, 32, have a lot in common as adults. They both moms to three children. In fact, Joy-Anna said that she talks to Jinger more than any of her other siblings, despite the distance between them. “We live so far away, but out of all the sisters, I feel like I do talk to you the most,” Joy-Anna said.
They may be close now, but they weren’t as kids. Joy-Anna credited their different personalities for their lack of a bond as children. “I think part of it is because I was so like, I will not be a girly girl. I will not wear nice clothes. I will not, whatever,” she said.
Different personalities and an age gap prevented the sisters from being close as kids. But they’re closer than ever now, despite the thousands of miles between them. Tell us in the comments if you noticed the Duggar siblings “segregated” by age groups on the family’s TLC reality show.
Jennifer Havener grew up in a small town in Upstate New York. She earned her B.A in Writing & Literature from Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. She always knew watching reality TV shows and soap operas, particularly ‘Days of Our Lives’, would come in handy someday. When she’s not writing, she’s playing with her dogs, Lola and Ruger
