The more I hear about the Duggars, the more I wonder if their whole ultra-wholesome image is somewhat of an act to keep the reality money flowing. Or maybe they say one thing and do another. For instance a lot of people pointed out that it seemed super suspicious that Jill Duggar announced her pregnancy when she was allegedly just six weeks along, having fallen pregnant two weeks after she was married. It seemed a bit early to make the announcement, and there was speculation that the baby would be healthy and “premature.” Could a Duggar offspring, from a family that makes such a show of chastity, have had premarital sex? They’re not supposed to even kiss until they’re married! Scandal!
Now Jill’s sister, Jessa, 21, has a chance to get up to no good. Her parents have let her 19 year-old fiance, Ben Seewald, move into their guest house. Ben has apparently been living there for several weeks, but now that their reality show is returning, they’re ready to talk about it. Jessa’s dad, Jim-Bob, was careful to say that the couple is chaperoned at all times.
Jim Bob says he hired Seewald to do work for him while he continues his college courses online.
“Ben was living four hours away in Hot Springs with his parents,” Jim Bob says. “After Michelle and I were talking about it, we have so many projects to do that we need help for – everything from construction projects to keeping the grass mowed to putting roof on a building, paperwork and things like that – and we asked him if he would be interested in moving up here so that Jessa and his relationship could be really accelerated. He was all for it and his parents were happy about it.”
Still, does it make all the chaperones jobs a little bit harder?
“They always have a chaperone,” Jim Bob explains. “It has just worked out great. It is a little more labor intensive for Dad – we did set a curfew. By midnight, every night, we need to make sure everybody is back in their place. Jessa and Ben have set up their own courtship standards. They did not hold hands until they got engaged. After they got engaged, they started holding hands. Just like Jill and Derick, they will be saving their first kiss for their wedding day.
‘You Want to Show Love and Affection’
Jill and Derick Dillard, who recently spoke to PEOPLE exclusively about their pregnancy news, also weigh in on Seewald’s new digs.“You’re human, and the physical side is there for a reason,” Derick says in the clip. “Naturally, it is going to be difficult if you try to refrain from that.”
Jessa’s mom, Michelle, 47, agrees.
“Any time you are in love and are together, you realize you want to show your love and affection,” she says in the clip. “But when you have purposed to keep those protections in your life, you have to remember and have that accountability.”
People has a video accompanying this news (that’s below). In the clip Jill’s older, pregnant sister, Jill, 23, and her husband, Derick Dillard, talk about how hard it was to wait until marriage. They presumably didn’t even kiss until the altar. Derick said “The physical side is there for a reason and it’s to draw you toward marriage because the goal…” then Jill finishes “you may not have much motivation if you weren’t having those attractions.” Those kids just admitted that they got married so that they could have sex. So maybe their baby won’t be premature, but it doesn’t matter. That’s an asinine reason to get married in my opinion. It’s one thing to wait until you’re married to have sex, it’s another to get married so you can have sex. It’s hard to distinguish the two, though.
So Jessa’s fiance, the dude who shades Catholics and loves guns, has been living with her family for weeks. What if Jessa realizes that he’s not the one for her? What if they get into some fights and it doesn’t work out? (I doubt this will happen, she’s already changed her Instagram handle to “Jessa Seewald”.) I hope her family would support her decision to pick her own partner, to remain single, or to date until she finds someone she’s ready to marry. Maybe they’re trying to relax the reigns a little by letting him be so close to her. Or maybe they just want more drama for their reality show.
Here’s the clip:
I have to mention that this kid Ben looks high in many of these photos. Maybe he’s just really tired.
Photos via Instagram
They’re so full os s-it.
If i’ll ever have a daughter I’ll teach her to not wh0re around but to not go virgin to the altar either.
I don’t think it’s the recipe of happiness. What if she gets stuck with a man that doesn’t make her happy in bed? I don’t want to sound shallow but at this epoint of wisdom I know love is not always enough.
Why does the celeb blogs care anymore? We know what their beliefs are, let’s just leave them alone. I’m not in support of them btw (even though I will encourage staying a virgin until marriage, but it’s not my business what others do) it’s just we already know everything they do goes against what we mostly do. It’s like we enjoy ripping them apart…I enjoy ripping people who can’t dress themselves apart, but lightly.
+1
Nothing shallow about it – physical attraction and sex are a big part of any relationship/marriage and people who suggest otherwise are naive and/or stupid.
Yes, but they are a stupid, stupid reason to get married. You can have great chemistry with a complete jerk.
How are these people allowed to spew their backwards views on tv every week?!
The whole virgin myth infuriates me, there is no medial definition of virginity… and what people will do, or not, to maintain some elusive thing is silly. Having sex does not change you, or make you worth less as a woman. We are human, we are sexual. It is just a way of keeping girls subservient making women feel back about having a normal sex drive.
Eh people are allowed to have a spectrum of opinions on sex. Some girls want to stay virgins (I don’t care about the Duggars, and they’re probably stunting a bit since this is reality tv) so good for them!
People are allowed to do what they want with their bodies/sexuality. They shouldn’t be “allowed” on tv? Yikes.
I don’t watch their show so whatever they espouse on TV matters little to me, but I wholeheartedly agree with you on “sex doesn’t change you”. It really doesn’t. Sex is just one more experience that you have in life, and positive or negative, you’re still the same person after you have sex. Now you’re a person with another life experience, the same as other important first experiences in your life that we don’t seem to place a lot of value on.
I don’t agree with their take on sexuality nor their take of women, but one thing that is refreshing is the fact that the man is also expected to remain a virgin, unlike in some other cultures.
all these beliefs about ‘virginity’ really have little to do with women and everything to do with racism. The Yazidi tribe who are being rescued from ISIS right now practice murder of ‘non-virgin’ females as do many muslim sects and also this racism is a tradition of judaism and still carries on today with the jewish tradition of not marrying gentiles so that so many convert before marriage and the children must be raised jewish. The racial undertones have been lost with time in judaism but are alive and well in many islamist and other abrahamic offshoot desert tribes. This is simply about ethnic/racial purity which is why so many times the standard of conduct is only applicable to females, because the member that reproduces must not bring racial undesirables into the ‘tribe’. Over-breeding of females such as the Duggar matriarch is part of the package because the ridiculously inept and inadequate parenting that accompanies it is part of traumatizing the children sufficiently enough to brain damage them into carrying on these out-dated and disastrous for humanity (in any era) traditions. I am sure the family members at this point don’t understand why they are carrying on these archaic behaviors because they are brainwashed into cultish submission, in part by the inability of one woman to possibly adequately parent this many children sufficiently.
With all the focus on the Duggar daughters lately( One even managed to snag a cover on People. Pushing the death of Lauren Bacall to one side!) Could there be a Duggar spinoff show in the works?
As for the guest house deal, I would not be surprised to hear their wedding being sooner than later
Eh… they’re kind of the anti-Kardashians so I can’t hate too much. But there is no way that boyfriend isn’t touching that girl’s Jesus cannon through a hole in the bed sheets.
Can we find a just measure in the middle between the Duggars and the Kardashians?
I really despise both of them.
I think the middle would be the Honey Boo Boo family. We’re screwed.
Abbott, they believe boys should be educated to whatever extent they want, but girls should not. Boys can have whatever career they choose, but girls are meant to be midwives or mothers, with no other choices. They are home schooled. They can’t choose their own friends, music, books or words. They believe in having as many children as you can because white people are being outnumbered by people of color. They keep their adult daughters in such a stranglehold that they are never allowed to have a conversation alone with the boy they marry until after the wedding. A woman’s place is to serve the man, who is next to God in the household. They are a cult. As much as I despise the Kardasians and everything they stand for, these people are worse.
People hate on Honey Boo Boo’s family a lot, and while I agree that they’re trashy and flatulent, they seem to have genuine affection for one another and are open-minded, fiscally responsible, and down-to-earth people. I’m much more fine with the Honey Boo Boo crew than I am with either the Duggars or the Kardashians.
Agree. I don’t like the Honey Boo Boo show because I think people are laughing at them in a way, but they seem nice and well meaning.
Word!
Well said!
Believe whatever you like, just do not attempt to FORCE your
archaic, patronizing, far fetched set of ideals, “Life Rules”
on me
I will behave however I feel like, as long as I am not harming anyone else
or trying to influence anyone else. mind yo business
I’ll mind mine
Don’t try and exclude people based on who they love, or what they look like
I wouldn’t buy a car without a test drive and a look under the hood, and I wouldn’t marry a man without an exhaustive body inspection and multiple “road trips”.
YUP. I mean, how would you even know if you have genuine sexual chemistry if you don’t get intimate before marriage? And sometimes, you can never never tell until you’re in the bedroom. I’ve had a few times where I’ve had what I thought were serious sparks and tension with guys before, and then it turned out to be a total bust in the intimacy department. We discovered that we were better off as friends — or never seeing each other again.
If we’d already been married and discovered that… At that point, you’re just legally bound together roommates.
The People spread was funny with them touching her belly, ahem. That tiny pooch isn’t the baby at 6 or 8 weeks. It’s the size of a grape.
It seems awfully “liberal” to let their daughters boyfriend move into the guest house.
This is what pisses me off about religious fanatics- I know SO MANY girls who came from a similar bigot&repressive background (as in they couldn’t go on holidays with their partners, couldn’t have the occasional sleepovers,and I am not talking about teenagers but girls well over 18. Basically weren’t supposed to even touch each other before marriage) and guess what happens to them? They sneak out and constantly lie to their families, because naturally you can’t prevent horny, young people to get into each other’s pants, and then? Either they get married too soon to “legitimise” their union (=have a proper space to fornicate like rabbits) or they get pregnant and AT THAT POINT the family yells for two seconds, gets a little crazy and eventually forces them to get married in a hurry and make it seems like it was planned all the way.. AS IF people around them were morons. Married at 20, parents at 22, and by the time they’re 30 they’re either separated or on a verge of a mental breakdown. Those people are huge hypocrites. Is it so hard to understand that repressing natural impulses is just a way of making them bigger (and unhealthy)?
yep, I remember when I was in school the guys would make comments about hooking up with the catholic school girls b/c they were the wildest and willing to do the most.
when my older brother graduated from public HS (1981), they did an announcement at the ceremony about the % going to college, % going into the military and the % that were going to be homemakers/mothers (or something like that) to address the # of girls (I think there were 10) that were pregnant or had babies while still in school.
the local Catholic school had made a big stink of an announcement at their graduation ceremony about how they no incidents of pregnancy outside of marriage. Mind you, all but 1 or 2 of the girls in my brother’s class that got pregnant in HS and graduated with him had been kicked out of the local Catholic HS when it was discovered they were pregnant. I know of at least 3 girls at that Catholic HS who were not kicked out because they had terminated their pregnancies.
Ahhhh religious orthodoxy, hypocrisy is thy name
When I was a teenager I worked with a girl who was supposed to be a reborn-christian .. She always went on and on about her boyfriend but how they were chaste and she was so self-righteous and judgemental it was annoying.. and then the longer she worked with us the more she let it slip that they weren’t “chaste” (ie buying a cute pair of matching panties and a bra and saying that her boyfriend will LOVE it then her face dropping when she realized what she said).. Those girls aren’t as innocent as they let on.
Ha yes this! When I was younger one of my coworkers was a good Christian girl. She was dating the man she would eventually go on to marry but one day she came in off shift and she had rug burn on her elbows and knees. She didn’t even try to explain that one just turned red lol
Yup yup – all the kids I knew at school who came from strict parents (not necessarily religious, but ultra-controlling) were the most reckless with their lives.
Or, the opposite happens and the parents end up sort of flattening out the kid, completely draining them of any capacity to think for themselves or feel anything.
I find it kinda depressing that Jim Bob set a curfew for midnight. At that age, my curfew was 11pm. Yeah, guess what kinda upbringing I had!
The People cover was ridiculous with the non-existent belly cupping, but I really doubt she got knocked up prior to marriage. Jim Bob doesn’t seem to let his girls do so much as make a run to the corner store alone, so I can’t see him letting Derrick (or Ben) around without watching him like a hawk.
give me a break, is he a super human who never sleeps? lol.
He does have his own child army…
I’m guessing they help with the chaperoning.
Why are any of these people getting any press whatsoever? Yeah, I clicked on the link (no really, I only come here for the comments), but I don’t get why there would be any interest in these folks whatsoever.
*Wait, because they are polarizing. Nm, I’m slow, carry on.
Given their strict rules about no touching, I’d think him living 4 hours away would be ideal.
All of these marriages sound like an escape- out of childhood, out of the parents’ house. That does not seem like a good reason to commit to someone for life and have kids with them.
ITA with everything you wrote.
Well, they all seem fairly happy, but I have a feeling that Michelle and Jim Bob would totally flip out if one of their children had a pregnancy outside of marriage or came to them and said, “Mom and Dad, I’m gay.”
well, when you are a religious fanatic it is your JOB to seem happy, that is part of your p.r. campaign to attract new members to the cult. And one in ten people is gay so there is def at least one queer in the family.
What really gets me is that these girls probably aren’t taught anything about sex at all, and are never allowed access to any outside information -TV Internet etc….
How much does the 18 yr old fiance know – is it ok for him to “research” but not her? Or is he supposed to go in totally ignorant too? Why is it a good thing to enter into a lifelong marriage commitment with so little information? I just don’t get it.
A couple of the girls are training to be midwives. I think they know about sex. That said I don’t think this family’s lifestyle is healthy for young girls.
Are both Duggar girls with younger men? That seems a bit strange at their age. They’re still at an age where (most) women are more mature than (most) men.
I think it’s all about control- which ties into the comments below about him having the guy do yard work. In their army of children there was no one to cut the grass? Please.
Maybe the kid actually took a science class, and Jim Bob could have none if that- quick, give him busywork! If you do chores all day there’s no time for any of that pesky book learning!
I think the married one is younger than her husband.
What I got from Jim-Bob (what a name!) is that he needed some free labour, so he thought why not let this kid move in and work around the clock.
I thought the same! Hire a landscaper using the TV money. He probably forced that kid to move to make the two get married sooner and repopulate the world.
And why couldn’t one of his other kids manage these projects? What he said about wanting to “accelerate” their courtship creeped me out. Almost like the thinking was, if we get him to move in, then he has to marry her. Shady.
They need material for the next season of the show.
Surely someone from their own army of kids is available to mow the lawn and do roofing! Isn’t that part of the point? The kids do the work so you don’t have to? My dad sure thought that way and he didn’t have his own baseball team worth of kids to choose from!
Or maybe their own children are too busy raising their younger siblings to do the work……
Anyone remember an episode of Eerie Indiana where all the kids were called some variant of ‘Bob’ and the girl with the magic drawing abilities was called ‘Sara Bob’.
With all those kids they really needed him to move closer to have someone to mow the lawn?
When you put it that way, it does sound more than a bit odd!
Jessa seems really immature — if she gets married now… mistake!
Jill announced her pregnancy 30 days after getting married. That’s no honeymoon baby.
And now Jessa’s love rat is moving in before marriage? These girls are going to have “miracle” 8lb preemies and their ignorant fans will lick it up.
Michelle says of course you want to show affection when you’re in love….well that sounds a lot like lust, one of those nasty deadly sins, Ms. Michelle. So her 21 year old cougar daughter..lol.. has a 19 yr old fiancé who has to hold back, for over a year now. Do the math Duggars, in your world isn’t wanting it as bad as having it. These people just don’t make sense.
All this does is give me the creeps because all I can think about is Jim Bob standing over their marriage bed dictating the appropriate way for them to have sex.
Through a bedsheet, right?
I watch the Duggars constantly its embarrassing. The only way I make myself ok with it is I quit secretly watching the Kardashians.
Anyway Jill and Derrick were way more into each other than Jessa is with Ben.
Ben is like the Fundie version of Kate Middleton. He made sure he got to her church and got an introduction and made sure he was where he needed to be. He just didn’t have to wait as long. Jim Bob is Ben’s new financier/dad/boss. He is never going to get out.
One thing nice — the Duggar girls sure are pretty.
I’m sorry but I don’t believe this. Two healty young-adults sharing a house and not kissing and having sex? Nope.
For Daddy Duggar, Ben is the ideal son-in-law: Young, besotted and dim.
Everything they do now is to perpetuate their show and keep the gravy train rolling. How this will backfire in the future remains to be seen.
I don’t watch the Duggars anymore, Michelle has to have some sort of complex to want to always be pregnant and that freakin happy.
I will say though that there are many thoughts and feeling that go along with sex. Some people feel changed by it and some don’t. The assumption that “sex doesn’t change you” is wrong. Also, I know a few couples that managed to date for a couple of years and still wait to have sex until after they were married. Now they definitely weren’t as strict to not even touch or kiss before marriage but they are all still together and very happy. Not everyone is constantly thinking about sex or feels that they HAVE to have it. If you really set it as a goal and have some self control it can be done.
That being said, I did not have that self control haha.
How come Jessa gets to have her fiancé live under the same roof as her, but Jill never got that opportunity?
He does look high in those pics. Go, Jessa! I hope you break free a little bit.
Vomit.
Every time Michele Duggar opens her mouth, she spews some bizarre word usage that makes no sense. “But when you have purposed”
She does this all the time and it’s so irritating!!
I said from the gate Jill got preg out of wedlock. You’re considered “pregnant” 2 weeks after conception, and pregnancy is give or take 2 weeks. She was preg before they hitched.
It’s not suspicious at all that Jill announced her pregnancy so soon. As someone who follows fundies as a kind of hobby, it is 100% normal for fundies from superfertile families to fall pregnant on their wedding nights or honeymoons (they never use birth control and in fact actively track their cycles to maximise the chances of pregnancy) and announce the pregnancy the second they find out.
You better believe they scheduled the wedding so that Jill was at her most fertile time of the month so she’d get pregnant right away. Many many other fundie couples have honeymoon babies and it’s not because they have nookie before the wedding.
Who knew the Duggars had a guest house? Doesn’t Jim-Bob have kids to do all that work?
I find these people creepy, especially the mom who needs to be pregnant, and her old man who can’t control himself even though his wife almost lost her life the last time. Having had 2 pregnancies of my own I know what it has done to my body. Michelle’s body….I just can’t…
He looks high, because he is high. I’m 100% positive that this boy smokes a lot of weed, but maybe im just projecting… :] Anyways, greetings from Holland!