From Chaos to New Beginnings: Duggar Sisters Carve Out Independent Lives and Families While Scandal Engulfs the Family and Two Brothers Are Arrested

The Duggar sisters are no stranger to heartbreak when it comes to brothers Josh and Joseph Duggar.

In 2015, seven years after the debut of the popular TLC series 19 Kids and Counting, allegations surfaced that the eldest of Jim Bob Duggar and Michelle Duggar’s supersized clan, Josh, now 38, had molested five underage girls, including two of his sisters, when he was a young teen.

Shortly after the allegations were revealed, Jill Duggar Dillard and Jessa Duggar Seewald, then in their early 20s, came forward as two of the victims, saying they had already “moved on” and forgiven their brother when the news broke.

Josh was never charged in connection with those accusations, but with the scandal came the end of the devoutly religious family’s TV show.

Later in 2015, TLC unveiled Counting On, a spinoff about the older children, which was canceled after Josh’s 2021 arrest on charges of receiving and possessing child pornography. Convicted on all charges in December 2021, Josh was sentenced in May 2022 to more than 12 years in prison.

Now their brother Joseph, 31, is facing accusations that he molested a 9-year-old girl during a trip to Florida in 2020. Joseph, a married father of four, pleaded not guilty to charges of lewd and lascivious behavior conducted by an individual over the age of 18. After being extradited to Bay County, Fla., where the alleged crime took place, he was released on a $600,000 bond while he awaits trial.

Over the years, Jill, Jessa, Jinger Duggar Vuolo, and their cousin, Amy Duggar King, all married with children, have found different ways to cope with the controversy swirling around their family, from setting boundaries with them to breaking from their strict fundamentalist upbringing.

Here are the ways that the sisters forged paths with their own families and lives amid the scandals.

Jinger Duggar Vuolo

Jinger has credited husband Jeremy Vuolo and brother-in-law Ben Seewald with helping her forge a new path as a Christian, wife and mom.

Though Jinger, 32, still spends time with her family in Arkansas, she and Jeremy, 38, are raising their three kids outside Los Angeles.

With the release of a 2023 memoir, Becoming Free Indeed, she told PEOPLE about realizing the religious community she grew up in had “cultlike tendencies.” She called brother Joseph’s arrest “unthinkable.”

More recently, she spoke out following brother Joseph’s arrest, calling the situation “unthinkable.”

On a March 25 episode of her Jinger & Jeremy podcast, she said it had been “one of those weeks that feels like years.”

“I did not think my heart could break like it has this week,” Jinger, who works as an author, podcaster and influencer, said. “The pain and heartbreak… it’s just unthinkable.” Vuolo echoed the sentiment, calling the news “devastating” and sharing that the couple felt “helpless” as they processed it.

Jill Duggar Dillard

Like Jinger, Jill was horrified by the allegations against Joseph, saying in a statement with husband Derick Dillard, “Our hearts go out to the innocent juvenile victim.”

On the Dillard Family Blog, she and her family wrote, “We first learned of anything related to his charges yesterday via a text from a friend who messaged us about the recent media reports of Joseph’s arrest and his alleged confession to molesting a juvenile female in 2020. We are shocked and heartbroken.”

“We strongly condemn abuse. We support the rule of law and hope that justice will be achieved,” the post continued. “We pray God gives her strength, comfort and hope, and that she is able to get all the help and support she needs and deserves in the days ahead.”

The 34-year-old second-oldest Duggar daughter, Jill, a mom of three, has been the most outspoken about needing space.

She quit Counting On in 2017, saying she and Derick, 37, had “lost control” of their lives. She was also upset when she learned Jim Bob was earning up to $45,000 an episode while, she said, she got paid “nothing.”

Jill, who has trained as a certified professional midwife, released her memoir Counting the Cost in September 2023. In her book, she opened up about making mom friends, wearing pants, getting a nose ring and going to therapy.

Jessa Duggar Seewald

“We are in complete shock,” Jessa said on social media in a now-deleted post after Joseph’s arrest, adding that she and husband Ben Seewald were “pulling together to support Kendra and her kids.”

 

“We learned, along with the rest of the world, of the heartbreaking news involving my brother, Joseph, and we are deeply grieved,” Jessa, 33, wrote on her Instagram Story. “Our hearts ache for this innocent young girl and the harm she has suffered.”

She continued, “This is a profound wrong, and we know it grieves the heart of God, who cares deeply for the children and vulnerable. We are lifting her up in prayer, asking for comfort, healing and justice.”

In 2015, Jessa spoke out publicly about how older brother Josh had molested her and sister Jill when they were children.

She is currently raising six kids with Ben, 30. The pair share Spurgeon 10, Henry,8, Ivy, 6, Fern, 4, George, 2, and Edward, who was born in July 2025.

Like her siblings, she often documents family life in videos and photos online.

In November, she and Seewald celebrated 11 years of marriage. The couple, who first met through their families at church in 2013, tied the knot on Nov. 1, 2014, in Bentonville, Ark.