Earlier today, we reported that a new edition of the Duggar family’s previously-published book – the imaginatively titled Growing Up Duggar – is generating some mini-scandals amongst fans of the controversial TV family.
While the Duggar faithful have proven that they’re willing to overlook the fact that Josh Duggar molested four of his sisters while he was in his teens, they’re apparently not so quick to move on from news of pre-marital hand-holding.
Apparently, a small contingent of fans were shocked by news that Jessa Duggar and Ben Seewald violated courtship rules several times in the months leading up to their wedding.
They didn’t go so far as to spend the night together or even – gasp! – kiss, but apparently news of the couple’s wanton front-hugging was too much for some Duggar loyalists too bear.
Needless to say, those same fans will likely need smelling salts after learning that Jill Duggar’s husband, Derick Dillard, dated other women before he met Jill.
“I had had a couple of girlfriends before meeting Jill, and chaperoning was new to me,” Ben writes in the newly-released book.
“But just because I had handled relationships one way in the past didn’t mean I couldn’t do it differently going forward.”
Yes, not only had Derick played the field, he did so with women who weren’t bound by the strict Duggar courtship rules, which means it’s safe to assume some hot and heavy hand-holding went down.
As for what else may have happened, well … Derick isn’t one to front-hug and tell, so we’ll probably never know the specifics.
Just the fact that Derick was linked to other women in a romantic capacity could have cost him Jim Bob’s approval, which in turn would’ve made him off-limits to Jill.
The Duggar kids famously experience their first kiss on their wedding day, and it’s safe to assume Derick had already been down that road.
And obviously it’s possible that he did much more before meeting Jill.
But Jim Bob gave the lad the thumbs-up anyway.
He must’ve been in a good mood that day.
Perhaps he was under the influence of some strong chamomile.
