The strangest facets of life in the Duggar family have been well documented over the years:
They take fundamentalist Christianity to an extreme that would make Mike Pence squirm; they’re not allowed to hug members of the opposite sex until they’re married to one; and they believe uteruses should be pushed to their physical limits in the fashion of NFL lineman.
But there’s one weird aspect of life as a Duggar that’s consistently overshadowed by all those admittedly much more bizarre practices.
You may have never noticed this, but the Duggars are always smiling.
We don’t mean most of the time — we mean that with the exception of a seriously somber occasion like a death of the revelation that one of their own supports Black Lives Matter, the Duggars basically take their facial expression cues from Heath Ledger’s Joker.
It’s impossible to imagine anyone being that chipper all the time, especially when they’re forced to share a roof with 20 other people.
(The only possible way such a living arrangement would be bearable is with 43 bathrooms. We’re not sure how the math works out, but it does.)
But despite it all, the Duggars are always grinning and Jim Bob and Michelle’s kids never have a bad word to say about one another.
There’s no way they really get along that well, of course, and as such, fans are always looking for signs of internal strife
The most common theory over the years has been that Jessa and Jana Duggar don’t get along.
And now, In Touch Weekly has uncovered some new evidence that seems to support the theory that these two sisters aren’t as close as they would have us believe.
It all begins with the now-infamous Jewelry Box Story.
It seems that when Jana and Jessa were kids, Jessa would go out of her way to annoy the hell out of Jessa.
The situation got so bad that Jessa would often come to her mother in tears, complaining about the way she had been mistreated by her younger sister.
Michelle was probably busy breastfeeding an even younger kid, so shrugged the situation off and told Jana to make like Jesus by turning the other cheek.
As such, Jana decided to gift Jessa with her most prized possession, “a pink jewelry box filled with treats,” even though “didn’t want to” and “definitely didn’t feel like doing it.”
The story was first recounted in the Duggars’ memoir as a loving family parable.
But Jana offered her version of events at an ATI conference, the tale took on a considerably different tone.
“How I can I work this out, I don’t want to go through my entire life having this bad relationship, it’s not like you can avoid your siblings,” she told the audience as she welled up with tears.
“There are people that may hurt us, there are people that may have done things to us, and that…it is our responsibility to forgive.” Jana sobbed.
(There are those who believe she was also talking about forgiving Josh Duggar in that speech, but whatever the case, it’s a reminder that the Duggars’ childhood wasn’t as idyllic as they’d have us believe.)
Sadly, it seems relations between Jana and Jessa haven’t improved much over the years.
Fans believe Jessa is guilty of shaming Jana for being the unmarried “Cinderella Duggar” and unfairly pawns her household duties off on her long-suffering older sis.
Of course, the best revenge is living well, so Jana may want to give more thought to the possibility of marrying Tim Tebow.
Watch Counting On online to look for more clues that Jana and Jessa secretly despise one another.
