The Duggar family has continued to keep fans updated on birthdays, births, and other goings-on after the cancellation of 19 Kids and Counting . However, in recent weeks, the Duggars have stayed strangely quiet about Josiah Duggar and Marjorie Jackson’s courtship.
The Duggar family takes courtship very seriously — they don’t allow their kids to start courting someone unless they’re planning on marrying the person that they’re interested in. All of the Duggar courtships that were featured on 19 Kids and Counting have ended in engagements and marriages– Jessa Duggar married Ben Seewald; Jill Duggar wed Derick Dillard; and Josh Duggar tied the knot with Anna Keller during the early days of the Duggar family’s TLC show. Many fans assumed that 18-year-old Josiah Duggar and 17-year-old Marjorie Jackson’s wedding would also be featured on a future episode of 19 Kids and Counting , but now that the show is over, there’s speculation that the teens’ courtship has also been called off.
Radar Online claims that Josiah Duggar and Marjorie Jackson haven’t been photographed together for nearly three months . The Duggar kids have an odd tradition of creating Instagram pages after they enter into courtships, so Josiah started a page to keep Duggar family fans updated on his courtship. However, he quit posting updates shortly after Josh Duggar publicly confessed to sexually molesting young girls when he was a teenager.
While it’s true that Josiah hasn’t updated his Instagram page in three months, Radar Online ‘s claim that Josiah and Marjorie haven’t been seen together for that period of time isn’t true. As the Inquisitr previously reported, a photo of the couple was posted on the Duggar Family Facebook page on June 16. This photo is evidence that the Josh Duggar molestation scandal isn’t what killed the kids’ courtship (if it is, in fact, over).
Perhaps the cancellation of the Duggar family’s TV show is responsible for the end of the couple’s courtship updates — some 19 Kids and Counting fans speculated that Marjorie was only courting Josiah because she hoped to benefit from the Duggar family’s TV fame . They criticized her demeanor in TLC’s courtship announcement video, pointing out that she looked more like she was auditioning for a role on a scripted TV series aimed at teens. In the video below, Josiah Duggar informs fans that their relationship was supposed to play out on future episodes of 19 Kids and Counting . Josh Duggar also helps Josiah remind fans of the Duggar family that courting is serious business.
On her blog, Marjorie Jackson does say that she’s acted in a play.
“I’m a homeschooled highschooler wrapping up the school year! (You fellow homeschooled highschoolers know what I’m talking about!) Talent shows, raising ducks, piano playing, listening to vinyl records, reading about Genghis and Kublai Khan, watching God’s Not Dead , doing laundry, memorizing Scripture, eating Costa Rican chocolate, playing Maria in the Sound of Music … you know, the normal stuff that keeps most people’s schedules packed.”
There’s still a chance that Josiah Duggar and Marjorie Jackson are still together — perhaps they decided that there’s no point in sharing their courtship with the public now that the Duggar family’s reality show has been cancelled. However, some Freejinger posters think that it’s odd that Marjorie isn’t with Josiah in the photos recently posted on the Duggar family’s Facebook page. The pictures were snapped during Jenny’s birthday party .
“New pictures of Jenny’s birthday party up on the Duggar’s facebook page,” one commenter wrote. “Two pictures of Josiah, no Marjorie in sight. I know that doesn’t mean anything, but I think it’s interesting that she wouldn’t be at a birthday party when they’re still in a courtship.”
You can see the photos in question below.
Do you think Marjorie decided to ditch Josiah because the Duggar family lost their TV series?
[Images via Duggar Family Official Facebook]