The news that John David Duggar is courting Abbie Burnett has revived interest in Counting On fans’ very favorite question:
Namely, why is it that Jana Duggar is still single?
Jana is only 28, but in the Duggars’ world, that’s dangerously close to old maid territory.
Jana and her sisters were taught from a young age that procreation is second only to praisin’ the lawd on the list of a woman’s reasons for being.
While her siblings took that lesson to heart, with most of them marrying young and getting pregnant on their honeymoons, Jana has chosen a different path.
From what we’ve seen, that path mostly involves helping to care for her younger siblings, and lots and lots of gardening.
But if a new fan theory is to be believed, Jana’s existence isn’t quite as lonely as we’ve been led to believe.
If you’re a longtime Duggar aficionado, then you might recognize Jana’s longtime friend Laura Demasie.
Jana and Laura have been so close for so long that Demasie has even helped Jana with the homeschooling of her younger siblings.
So perhaps it should come as no surprise that many Duggar fans now suspect that Jana and Laura are more than just friends.
The subject is a common topic of discussion on Duggar-focused message boards on Reddit.
Many point to Jim Bob Duggar’s cryptic 2017 comment that Jana “preferred the company of women” as evidence.
It certainly sounds suggestive, but we’re pretty sure Jim Bob didn’t mean to imply that Jana might be gay.
We say that not because she’s definitely not gay, but because we highly doubt Jim Bob would ever publicly acknowledge that fact if she were.
It’s no secret that several Duggar children have rebelled against Jim Bob’s authoritarian rule in recent years.
But women wearing pants instead of floor-length skirts is one thing — coming out as homosexual would be quite another.
Hard it is to believe in 2018, there are still families that consider being gay to be a disownable offense.
And the Duggars are one of them.
Sadly, if Jana and Laura were actually in a relationship, they would likely be forced to keep it a secret for the rest of their days.
Even if the rumors about Jana were true and she wanted to come out she would likely realize that doing so would lead Jim Bob to force all of his other children to cut ties with her.
And for someone as family-oriented as Jana, that would be tantamount to a death sentence.
As if any of us needed another reason to dislike Jim Bob.
Watch Counting On online for more on reality TV’s most controversial family.