Jill Duggar And Derick Dillard Criticized For Keeping Josh Duggar Wedding Tradition Alive For Jinger’s ‘Counting On’ Special
Josh Duggar started a wedding tradition many years ago and two of his family members kept it going during Jinger Duggar and Jeremy Vuolo’s televised marriage ceremony. However, some Counting On fans are criticizing Jill Duggar and her husband, Derick Dillard, for pulling Josh’s favorite wedding stunt.
Jinger Duggar’s wedding special aired Tuesday night on TLC, and Josh Duggar was noticeably missing from the Counting On episode. As the Stir reports, numerous companies have pulled their advertisements from the Duggar family’s show because of Josh’s sex scandals. Viewers likely did not see him at the wedding because TLC doesn’t want to risk losing more advertisers.
However, Jill Duggar and Derick Dillard did something that probably made a lot of Counting On viewers think of Josh Duggar. After Jeremy and Jinger said “I do,” bridesmaid Jill was supposed to be escorted down the aisle by one of Jinger’s groomsmen. However, Derick, who was not a part of the wedding party, jumped out of his seat and grabbed his wife. He dipped Jill back and kissed her while the groomsman awkwardly looked on, then he linked arms with her. The couple walked out of the church together while the jilted groomsmen were forced to walk behind them alone.
After watching Derick Dillard’s wedding antics, some viewers took to the Counting On Facebook page to complain about his behavior.
“I just watched it and that was super rude of him!!! Then laid her back for a kiss right in the middle of somebody else’s wedding! RUDE! Don’t NOBODY want Jill but him!” Cheryl Eugene wrote.
“There was no need for him to kiss his wife,” Elizabeth Hunter-Stefan commented. “He had his wedding day and tried to steal something from Jinger and Jeremy. It made him look needy and very insecure. Very childish.”
However, other fans wrote that they thought the moment was “adorable” and “cute.” A few commenters also pointed out that what Derick did is a Duggar family tradition, and it’s one that started with Josh and Anna Duggar.
Josh and Anna did something very similar during the 2012 wedding of Anna’s sister, Priscilla Keller, and David Waller, a close friend of the Duggar family. Anna and Josh were both members of the couple’s wedding party, and they stopped near the front pews of the church and kissed as they were walking down the aisle together.
According to the Duggar Family Blog, Josh pulled the stunt again at Jill Duggar and Derick Dillard’s 2014 wedding. This time, Anna was a member of the wedding party while her husband was not, so Josh had to yank his wife away from her groomsman escort to kiss her. Ben Seewald also stole Jessa Duggar away from her escort and walked her down the aisle after the ceremony. However, Jessa and Ben couldn’t make out in the middle of the church because they were still courting at the time.
As Entertainment Tonight reports, Jessa and Ben did not kiss each other in front of their wedding guests when they tied the knot in November 2014. However, Derick Dillard tried to make up for the lack of a kiss between the bride and groom by grabbing Jill Duggar and locking lips with her as she hastily made her way down the aisle with her groomsman escort.
According to the Daily Mail, neither Josh Duggar nor Anna Duggar were members of Jessa and Ben’s wedding party, so they didn’t get to put on a public display of affection during that wedding ceremony.
Even though TLC has refused to film Josh Duggar for Counting On, CBS News reports that he did attend Jinger Duggar’s wedding. Jinger even asked Anna to be one of her bridesmaids.
Do you think the kissing custom started by Josh Duggar is in poor taste? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
[Featured Images by Duggar Family Official Facebook, Jill Duggar Dillard/Instagram]
