Jinger Duggar’s New Life & Raising Her Daughters in Los Angeles
Jinger Duggar Vuolo is prepared to tell her side of the story—but on her own terms.
The 19 Kids and Counting alum shared the reason why she turned down appearing in Prime Video’s bombshell docu-series Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets, which details the controversies behind the Duggar family.
“I was actually approached and asked to participate in the docuseries, but I thought that from my perspective, I really wanted to make sure that I was able to share my story in my own words and in my own timing,” Jinger told People in an article published June 5. “So that’s why I wrote Becoming Free Indeed, was to share more of my journey out of IBLP’s teachings.”
IBLP, known as the Institute in Basic Life Principles, is the non-denominational Christian organization followed by Jinger’s parents, Jim Bob Duggar and Michelle Duggar. The organization teaches female submission and obedience, homeschooling and conservative religious beliefs.
Jinger said she’s “heard a little about” Duggar Family Secrets from Jill, noting that she’s “excited to hear what [Jill] has to say, even in this documentary.”
The 29-year-old tackled similar topics in her memoir in January, detailing how she reexamined her relationship with religion with the help of her husband Jeremy Vuolo. She told People that she wanted her memoir to be “God-honoring and hopefully sharing my story in a balanced way.”
“The reason I decided to write Becoming Free Indeed in a book form was because I thought, ‘I want this to be my story in a book form because then whenever people are trying to work through this stuff, they can go back and highlight,'” Jinger added, “and [go], ‘Oh, she was struggling with this too. This is how Jinger kind of walked through it.'”
Jinger—who released her debut memoir, The Hope We Hold, in 2021—explained that telling her story took courage.
“I remember whenever I was first coming out of these teachings, I just spent a ton of time just working through it myself, and I was not at the place to speak,” she recalled. “I did not feel strong enough. And I think once I got to the place where I could see how far I had come out of this, then I started looking around at the people who I grew up with, these friends of mine who were just having big challenges because of being raised in this teaching.”
And Jinger is not the only member of the Duggar family to speak out against her upbringing. Her sister Jill Dugar, who is releasing a memoir of her own, said on Duggar Family Secrets that “IBLP teachings aren’t Christianity. They’re something entirely different.”
Ahead of the series’ premiere, Jim Bob and Michelle accused Duggar Family Secrets of depicting events “in a derogatory and sensationalized way because sadly that’s the direction of entertainment these days.”
“We love every member of our family,” the couple said in a statement on their website, “and will continue to do all we can to have a good relationship with each one.”
Keep scrolling for every major bombshell from Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets.
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