Yesterday, we reported that Jinger Duggar had used secular music lyrics in an Instagram post celebrating her upcoming one-year wedding anniversary.
Like all of Jinger’s small acts of defiance, it may not seem like much to those who are unfamiliar with her family’s strict code of conduct.
But for those who are familiar with the many rules the Duggar children are forced to follow, Jinger is a regular freedom fighter.
Jinger wears pants, listens to music that isn’t about Jesus, and she even left her hometown of Tontitown, Arkansas to relocate to Laredo, Texas with husband Jeremy Vuolo.
Next thing you know, she’ll be holding down a job!
The situation is enough to make fans wonder if Jinger’s relationship with her parents has become strained over the course of the last year.
While she engaged in minor acts of disobedience as a child, it was only after she married Vuolo that Jinger really started to cut ties with her Jim Bob and Michelle’s belief system.
Some fans have expressed hopes (or fears) that Jinger will eventually “break away” from the Duggars’ restrictive lifestyle, but a longtime family friend says that’s unlikely to happen.
In a recent Reddit AMA (“Ask Me Anything”) session, an unidentified friend of the Duggars’ answered fan questions about the family’s secret life.
And fans had a lot of inquiries about Jinger and her apparently complicated relationship with her parents:
“I think Jim Bob has feelings about Jinger’s marriage. I think he feels that Jeremy wasn’t 100% upfront about his values that may differ from Jim Bob’s,” the family friend said at one point.
“But they also feel adamantly that once the girl’s are married they are under the guidance of their husband’s, so they wouldn’t intervene.”
The insider says that while Jinger’s independent streak is not always well-received around the Duggar compound, there’s no real concern that her abandon her family’s core beliefs:
“Obviously everyone knows about Jinger wearing pants and such. There are little things they do once leaving the home that they are restricted from when they are younger (tv, movies, music) but no one has ‘broken away’ completely,” said the source.
However, one major beef that Jim Bob might have with his daughter’s marriage is the lack of children it’s produced thus far:
“Jim Bob is OBSESSED with how many grandchildren they will end up with. He used to be all about how many children he and Michelle would have and seemed very fixated and making it to 20,” said the insider.
“Now that they are past that point, he has turned that fixation to grandchildren. It’s like his life’s mission to have 100.
One commenter noted that JB “must hate Jinger and Jeremy right now,” but the insider didn’t reply.
Of course, the source admitted that she doesn’t know everything.
Asked point-blank about the rumors that Jinger is using birth control, she replied simply, “I have no idea, sorry!”
Some things even rebellious Jinger keeps to herself.
Watch Counting On online for more from reality TV’s most controversial family.
