These days, Josiah Duggar is engaged to Lauren Swanson, and the young couple appears to be head-over-heels for one another.
But Josiah’s love life hasn’t been all smooth sailing.
Before Lauren came along, Josiah courted Marjorie Jackson, and while the vast majority of Duggar courtships result in marriage, the short-lived relationship between Josiah and Marjorie ended abruptly and without explanation.
To this day, little is known about the exact reason that Josiah and Marjorie called it quits, and many fans are stll intrigued.
After all, a Duggar courtship is unlike most other romantic relationships.
The Duggars describe courting as “dating with a purpose” – and that purpose is not companionship, but procreation.
Jim Bob and Michelle discourage their kids from entering courtships until they’re certain their partner is someone they could imagine marrying and having kids with.
So breakups are extremely rare, and it’s even more rare for courtships to end the way that Josiah and Marjorie’s ended.
Just weeks after the couple loudly and proudly announced their courtship on the Duggars’ official Facebook page, they very quetly went their separate ways.
Fans only realized the relationship had come to an end when they noticed that all of the photos of Marjorie had been deleted from Josiah’s Instagram page.
So what exactly led these two to the surprsing decision to break up?
Well, they’ve both been hesitant to speak about it publicly, but Josiah shed some light on the decision in his last interview before he met Lauren.
“Marjorie and I had a good time together. We were just trying to follow God’s lead on everything,” he said of the split, according to In Touch Weekly.
“She didn’t feel that it was the right timing then, so we called it quits for a bit.”
Interestingly, Josiah concluded the interview with a comment that many interpreted as an admission of fault – as well as a
“We have time to grow … you never know… But when you think about a girl to marry, you ask what kind of guy she would want to marry and you try to be that kind of guy.”
After Josiah’s interview, the Duggars issued a brief statement to People magazine:
“A few weeks ago Marjorie and Josiah agreed to end their courtship, keeping in step with what they believe the Lord’s will is,” the statement read.
“Both are thankful for the time getting to know each other, and their families continue to enjoy each other’s company and close friendship.”
And that’s likely all the information we’ll ever get on the subject.
As soon as the Josiah-Marjorie courship began, it became clear that Josiah would not be opening up about his orevious relationship any further.
There was a talk of Marjorie writing a tell-all about her time with the Duggars, but the book never materialized.
We guess fans will simply have to continue speculating wildly about the reasons the couple called it quits!
Watch Counting On online for more from reality TV’s most controversial family.
