Together through it all. Josh Duggar and Anna Duggar began courting in 2006 after meeting at a homeschooling convention. Since then, the pair have stayed together through many ups and downs — as well as the birth of six (and soon seven) children.
Anna shared that the pair are expecting their seventh child together — a baby girl — in April 2021. The news was announced with an Instagram reveal where the 19 Kids and Counting alums stood under an umbrella raining pink confetti as their kids ran around them.
“It’s a GIRL!!!!!” the Florida native wrote in the caption alongside a pink bow emoji. “We are overjoyed to announce baby seven is on the way and we can’t wait to hold her in our arms this fall!”
Less than a week later, the eldest Duggar child was arrested on April 29 and placed on federal hold at the Washington County jail in Arkansas. On April 30, the reality star pleaded not guilty to receiving and possessing child pornography.
“According to court documents, Joshua James Duggar, 33, allegedly used the internet to download child sexual abuse material,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Western District of Arkansas said in a press release. “Duggar allegedly possessed this material, some of which depicts the sexual abuse of children under the age of 12, in May 2019.”
The family is no stranger to scandal. In August 2015, Josh found himself at the center of a large-scale cheating scandal after website Ashley Madison was involved in a data leak. Months after the news broke, Anna addressed her husband’s admitted affairs.
“It was definitely a hard thing, and I think it was such a betrayal for a spouse to go through what we’re walking through — and … it was hard,” she said during a December 2015 episode of Jill & Jessa: Counting On. “It was hard to realize that it was such a public thing, so not only was it a betrayal for me, but it was also a betrayal against those who call themselves Christian, because here we were as a Christian couple and everyone was able to see us get married and to vow before God to be loyal to each other. And [then] that loyalty was broken.”
Josh’s sister Jinger Duggar and her husband, Jeremy Vuolo, revealed that the scandal had brought their family closer in an exclusive interview with Us Weekly.
“It was one of the hardest times of our lives,” Jinger told Us in April 2021. “I will never forget how I felt in that moment. And I think even everything that happens in our lives — because we’re in the public eye — it makes it more challenging because then it’s not just dealing with these things inwardly, but you have to give an answer to the world. That makes it a much tougher thing to walk through.”
Following his scandals, Josh entered a six-month rehab program. Two months after finishing the program in March 2016, the couple revealed they’d started marriage counseling of their own.
“Since the residential treatment program ended, we have been working with a professional marriage and family counselor to take important steps toward healing,” they wrote in a statement on the Duggar family’s website in May 2016. “As the future unfolds, we are taking one day at a time and we are grateful for your continued prayers for both of us and our sweet children.”
Scroll to see the reality TV personalities’ relationship through the years: