Joy-Anna Duggar Confesses: My Parents" Religion Is Too Strict!

Back in May of 2017, Joy-Anna Duggar married Austin Forsyth.

Just nine months later, Joy welcomed her first child.

Needless to say, at just 20 years old, Joy is already eagerly following in the footsteps of her mother and older sisters by devoting her life to marriage and motherhood in accordance with her family’s religious views.

But it seems she wasn’t always thrilled with the prospect of keeping the faith.

In a newly released preview of tonight’s episode of Counting On, Joy is seen giving a heartfelt speech the rehearsal dinner for Joseph Duggar and Kendra Caldwell’s wedding.

It seems Joy and Joe share a special bond, and he helped through an extraordinarily difficult period in her youth.

As she reveals in her speech, Joy had some serious doubts about the religious beliefs that shaped her upbringing, and Joe was both a guiding light and a source of love and support during this uncertain time.

“I can’t speak and cry. It’s terrible. First of all I want to say that Joe, I’m so thankful for you,” Joy says in her speech.

“You really did change my life.”

Joy goes on to reveal that her crisis of faith made her feel like an outsider at times, and Joe was always quick to remind her that she still belongs:

“Just through my teen years, I think I was having a hard time taking my parents’ faith as my own and you really befriended me as an older brother, and [were] the first in the morning to say ‘I love you’ and ‘What are you going to do today?’ and stuff like that,” she says.

“It just really meant a lot to me.”

It doesn’t sound like Joy ever fully abandoned her parents’ belief system or explored other faiths, but this is the first time that one of Michelle and Jim Bob’s children has admitted to harboring doubts about the beliefs that dominate all aspects of life in the Duggar home.

It’s a reminder that Joy once seemed to be the Duggar most likely “break away” and pursue a life far from her parents’ home that looked very different from the environment she was raised in.

A tomboy who seemed more interested in sports and the outdoors than marriage and family, Joy seemed to have little interest in pursuing the life that had been assigned to her at birth.

Needless to say, these days she’s given up the struggle and seems happy in her pious, domestic life she’s built for herself.

Her parents are likely thrilled – but it’s a disappointing turn of events for many Duggar fans.

Watch Counting On online for more from reality TV’s most controversial family.

View Slideshow: Joy-Anna Duggar Pregnancy Raises One Huge Question

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Austin Forsyth: Joy-Anna Fiance, Family Even More Strict Than the Duggars?

If you’re a card-carrying member of Duggar Nation, you know that Joy-Anna just got engaged to Austin Forsyth after a whirlwind courtship.

And we mean whirlwind. Even by Duggar standards, Joy-Anna and Austin are moving this courtship thing along at a breakneck pace.

Those who watch Counting On online were introduced by the 19-year-old Joy-Anna to boyfriend “Austin” on the season finale last fall.

Incredibly, as more information about the Forsyth family comes to light, it appears that they may be even more strict than the Duggars.

His family runs the Fort Rock Family Camp in Arkansas, and has been acquainted with the Duggars and their church for many years.

(This appears to be a familiar pattern; As with Joseph Duggar courting Kendra Caldwell, her family attends the family’s church as well.)

“We are extremely happy to announce the courtship of our son, Austin,” parents Terry and Roxanne wrote on their Christian retreat’s page. 

“He and Joy have honored the Lord and will be a great testimony for his goodness and provision for a spouse. Congratulations to Austin & Joy!” 

After almost 15 years of friendship, it appears that Joy-Anna Duggar has already become a part of Austin’s family, or close to it.

A quick look at the retreat’s site shows Joy-Anna posing next to Austin, now believed to be 22, and his family in a “camp staff” photo.

Joy’s parents, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, are well aware of this, of course; They frequent the Forsyth’s family camp in St. Paul, Arkansas.

The Duggars last visited in October, speaking at the 5th annual fall marriage retreat (yes, Jim Bob and Michelle offer marriage advice).

“We’re so thankful for Austin,” Michelle gushed of her daughter’s new beau last fall. “He is a great guy and we’re excited about the future.”

Not only are the Forsyths’ members of the Duggars’ inner circle, they’re not new to the whole reality TV scene themselves.

It’s this fact that has some fans worried about Joy-Anna.

In 2009, when he was 15, he starred alongside his parents and sister Meagan on Season 1 of CMT’s World’s Strictest Parents.

No, we did not invent the existence of that show, as much as you might think so. It was actually a thing and they were on it.

The series, which was what it sounds like, united troubled teens with strict parents in hopes of helping them turn over a new leaf.

Whether it achieved that goal or not, it certainly gave viewers some insight into Austin’s family and their extremely rigid belief system.

The Forsyths place a heavy emphasis on modesty, homeschooling and staying “pure” until marriage, which likely sounds pretty familiar.

Not unlike the Duggars, that includes saving your first kiss for your wedding day (suffice it to say, premarital sex is out of the question).

In one particular scene, it was revealed to viewers that during a Sunday school lesson, the Forsyth’s guests were taught about dating.

Specifically, the dangers of dating, which “leads to divorce.”

To our knowledge, the Duggars have never used wording that strong.

However, we all know how seriously regimented they are, and how courtship has been called “dating with a purpose” or a pre-engagement.

In any event, it’s no wonder that we’ve heard talk of Joy-Anna’s courtship rules being the strictest ever enforced by the famous family.

Critics will likely talk about how unhealthy this all is. Maybe they’re right, or maybe it’s exactly what these two young people want and love.

All we can tell you is that they look happy as a pair of human beings can be, and that by all accounts that matter, it’s a match made in … 

… somewhere in Northwest Arkansas, nestled among the Ozarks.

View Slideshow: 13 Disturbing Things BANNED By the Duggar Family

God’s Country in more ways than one. Even a little slice of heaven.

At least if you can describe a pair of repressed, sheltered, virginal 20-somethings running around in layer upon layer of denim as heaven.

If anyone can, it would be Joy-Anna and Austin, and we are so excited for them as long as they’re happy in taking this next big step.

Ditto Joseph and Kendra, whose romance was announced today.

We just hope that they’re doing it for the right reasons, and chart their own course in life, rather than living wholly in their families’ shadows.

Having core beliefs and values and sticking by them is good, but so is getting out there and trying new things. Just some food for thought.

View Slideshow: Duggar Family Photos: Then & Now!

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Joy-Anna Duggar: Subjected to Extra Strict Courtship Rules?

Last week, the world learned that Joy-Anna Duggar and Austin Forsyth are engaged.

While they’ll still be forced to forgo sex until their wedding night, some of the harsh restrictions placed on the couple’s courtship were lifted the moment Forsyth put a ring on it.

For example, Joy-Anna and Austin can hold hands now, which, in Duggar Land, is actually treated as a major step forward in the courting process.

But just because the young couple is now giving in to their wanton desire to press palms, that doesn’t mean they’re exempt from one of the more stifling strictures of courting:

Young Duggars are not permitted to spend time with their significant others without the presence of a chaperone, even after they’ve gotten engaged.

Interestingly, sources say the Duggars are doubling-down on c-ck-blocking security in Joy-Anna’s case, often forcing her to get to know her fiance under the supervision of not one, but two family chaperones.

According to The Daily Mail, when Austin proposed to Joy-Anna, both Johannah and Jennifer Duggar were brought along for the ride – literally.

The couple went horseback riding prior to Austin’s proposal, and we imagine the romantic mood was somewhat dampened by the presence of two of Joy-Anna’s many younger siblings.

Joy-Anna seemed to confirm the double-team chaperone treatment in a recent interview with TLC:

“We were going to go horseback riding and I decided to bring Johannah and Jennifer along because I knew that they would enjoy that, and they got to be the chaperones of this date,” Joy-Anna said.

She added:

“It also made this day really, really special and then he asked me to marry him and I said, ‘Yes!"”

It would be one thing if Jennifer and Johannah were simply chaperoning a date that ended in a surprise proposal.

(Don’t get us wrong; it would still be super weird.)

But the situation is made even stranger by the fact that that Austin asked for Jim Bob’s permission to propose.

Nothing in the Duggar family happens without Jim Bob’s say-so, which means the patriarch knew that Forsyth would be popping the question, but he felt the need to send two of her younger sisters to supervise anyway.

Of course, at this point the Duggars have set the weirdness bar so high that if that’s the strangest thing to come out about the family this week, they can consider it a victory.

View Slideshow: Joy-Anna Duggar: 13 Things to Know About Me!

On the bright side, the stringent rules don’t seem to be affecting Joy-Anna’s enthusiasm for her romantic future:

“I’m so excited to be engaged to my best friend,”  she said, when asked about the proposal in a recent interview. ‘Austin made it so romantic, it’s amazing.”

Watch Counting On online to get caught up on this budding romance.

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Josh Duggar: Strict Post-Rehab Rules Revealed!

It’s been two months since we first learned that Josh Duggar had been released from rehab and had returned to his hometown of Tontitown Arkansas.

At first, Josh kept a very low profile.

It was an understandable decision, as we imagine it’s not easy being a known sex offender (who was never punished for his crimes) in a town of 2,400.

After a few weeks, however, Josh decided that he couldn’t spend his life lurking in the shadows, peering out on his small southern town like some far creepier version of Boo Radley.

Eventually, the time came for him to venture back out into the world.

So Josh (or someone in his family) decided he should do so far, far from home.

First, Josh was spotted playing mini-golf in a Tennessee suburb.

Taking a child molester to a mini-golf course is a bit like bringing Dracula to a blood bank, but hey, maybe it was meant to be some sort of test.

From there, the silent apology tour rolled on, with Josh rearing his head in various locales, all far from Tontitown, where the townsfolk are presumably awaiting his return with torches and pitchforks.

Earlier this week, Josh was spotted spending time with Anna Duggar’s family in Florida.

It was a surprising sight, as shortly after word got around that Josh used an Ashley Madison account to cheat on the mother of his four children, several members of Anna’s family publicly bashed Josh.

Well according to at least one tabloid report, the reunion didn’t go as smoothly as the Duggars would have us believe.

View Slideshow: 13 Reasons Why Anna Duggar Should Leave Josh NOW

“He tried to talk to Anna’s sister Susanna, saying he was sorry he hadn’t talked to her since everything happened, and it got really awkward,” a source close to the situation tells In Touch.

“She stopped him and said, ‘You don’t have to apologize to me. If you’d had an affair on me, we wouldn’t be married anymore.’”

Josh didn’t fare much better with Anna’s brother:

“Josh tried to sit next to Daniel at a restaurant,” says the insider. “Daniel got up and moved to another table.”

No big surprise there, as Anna’s siblings were among the many who encouraged her to divorce Josh after he was busted cheating.

Apparently, the only reason they were cool with him coming to stay with them even briefly is that he’s agreed to a strict set of post rehab rules enforced by Anna.

Basically, he’s rarely allowed out of her sight, and his digital communications are closely monitored.

The insider says Josh is allowed to have a cell phone, but it’s of the old-school variety:

“It’s not a smartphone. He isn’t allowed to have one of those,” says the source. “He has a little phone with a tiny screen and he can’t send or receive picture messages on it.”

Looks like that “trust” Anna talked about isn’t quite there yet.

View Slideshow: Josh Duggar Sex Scandal Timeline: How His Family’s Empire Crumbled

Josh Duggar: Strict Post-Rehab Rules Revealed!

It’s been two months since we first learned that Josh Duggar had been released from rehab and had returned to his hometown of Tontitown Arkansas.

At first, Josh kept a very low profile.

It was an understandable decision, as we imagine it’s not easy being a known sex offender (who was never punished for his crimes) in a town of 2,400.

After a few weeks, however, Josh decided that he couldn’t spend his life lurking in the shadows, peering out on his small southern town like some far creepier version of Boo Radley.

Eventually, the time came for him to venture back out into the world.

So Josh (or someone in his family) decided he should do so far, far from home.

First, Josh was spotted playing mini-golf in a Tennessee suburb.

Taking a child molester to a mini-golf course is a bit like bringing Dracula to a blood bank, but hey, maybe it was meant to be some sort of test.

From there, the silent apology tour rolled on, with Josh rearing his head in various locales, all far from Tontitown, where the townsfolk are presumably awaiting his return with torches and pitchforks.

Earlier this week, Josh was spotted spending time with Anna Duggar’s family in Florida.

It was a surprising sight, as shortly after word got around that Josh used an Ashley Madison account to cheat on the mother of his four children, several members of Anna’s family publicly bashed Josh.

Well according to at least one tabloid report, the reunion didn’t go as smoothly as the Duggars would have us believe.

View Slideshow: 13 Reasons Why Anna Duggar Should Leave Josh NOW

“He tried to talk to Anna’s sister Susanna, saying he was sorry he hadn’t talked to her since everything happened, and it got really awkward,” a source close to the situation tells In Touch.

“She stopped him and said, ‘You don’t have to apologize to me. If you’d had an affair on me, we wouldn’t be married anymore.’”

Josh didn’t fare much better with Anna’s brother:

“Josh tried to sit next to Daniel at a restaurant,” says the insider. “Daniel got up and moved to another table.”

No big surprise there, as Anna’s siblings were among the many who encouraged her to divorce Josh after he was busted cheating.

Apparently, the only reason they were cool with him coming to stay with them even briefly is that he’s agreed to a strict set of post rehab rules enforced by Anna.

Basically, he’s rarely allowed out of her sight, and his digital communications are closely monitored.

The insider says Josh is allowed to have a cell phone, but it’s of the old-school variety:

“It’s not a smartphone. He isn’t allowed to have one of those,” says the source. “He has a little phone with a tiny screen and he can’t send or receive picture messages on it.”

Looks like that “trust” Anna talked about isn’t quite there yet.

View Slideshow: Josh Duggar Sex Scandal Timeline: How His Family’s Empire Crumbled