The Duggar family recently spent time with the Bates clan at a wedding in Tennessee. Joy-Anna Duggar is good friends with Carlin Bates, and the two girls got to hang out together ahead of the event. However, Joy-Anna wasn’t having much fun.
Joy-Anna Duggar, 19, made an appearance in an Instagram story that Carlin Bates, 18, recently shared with her followers. The Dedicated to the Duggars Tumblr downloaded Carlin’s short video clips, which show Carlin and Joy-Anna sitting in a vehicle late at night. Carlin says that she’s trying to study for a history test, and she also reveals that Joy-Anna is sad because she misses her fiancé, Austin Forsyth.
“I have history test tomorrow and I don’t want to study because I’m tired of studying,” Carlin says . “And Joy’s over here. Joy misses her boyfriend.”
“I miss him so bad,” a glum Joy-Anna responds . “I’m crying.”
Carlin Bates confirms that her friend has been shedding tears over Austin’s absence, and she says that they both need their “boyfriends to come into town now.”
On Saturday, the Duggar family and the Bates brood reunited in Tennessee for a wedding. The families are longtime friends, and they have a lot in common. Both clans include 19 kids, and they both have their own reality shows. The Duggar family currently appears on the TLC series Counting On , and the Bates star on UPtv’s Bringing Up Bates . The super-conservative families also share similar religious beliefs.
The Bates family lives in Tennessee, but the Duggars didn’t make the long drive from Arkansas to the Volunteer State to attend a Bates wedding. According to the Knot , Tabitha Paine, a good friend of the Duggars, got married in Powell, Tennessee on April 1.
Tabitha Paine is the sister-in-law of Bringing Up Bates star Erin Bates Paine, and she used to be the Duggar family’s live-in tutor. Tabitha’s engagement made headlines earlier this year when it was discovered that her fiancé, Timothy Robertson, was once convicted of criminal sexual conduct in the third degree. As the Inquisitr previously reported, Robertson was accused of anally raping a female roommate in late 1999. He now claims that the sex was consensual and that he took a plea bargain to avoid jail time. The Duggar family threw an engagement party for Tabitha Paine and Timothy Robertson, so they’re seemingly fine with his dark past.
There’s no word on whether Paine and Robertson’s wedding was filmed for Counting On or Bringing Up Bates . If it was not, fans of the Duggars and the Bates will just have to settle for perusing the family’s social media posts about the event. According to the Duggar Family Official Facebook page, Joy-Anna Duggar drove her family’s bus during part of their trip to Tennessee.
https://www.facebook.com/duggarfamilyofficial/photos/a.518180528315601.1073741828.510067475793573/1012428928890756/?type=3&theater
While Joy-Anna cried over Austin, her older brother Joseph enjoyed goofing off with Lawson Bates and a few other guy friends at the wedding. As SheKnows reports, there were once rumors that Joseph Duggar and Carlin Bates were courting , and Radar Online once alleged that Lawson Bates was Jinger Duggar’s “hot secret boyfriend.” However, Joseph is currently courting longtime family friend Kendra Caldwell , and Jinger is married to Texas pastor Jeremy Vuolo. The Bates Family Blog reports that Carlin Bates is in a relationship with gospel singer Evan Stewart.
Lawson still hasn’t found love yet, but he is rocking a ring in one of his recent Twitter photos. Lawson, Joseph, and two other friends were photographed mocking the way girls react to engagement rings.
If guys acted like girls???? pic.twitter.com/DwlbMYzZ5g
— Lawson Bates (@lawbates) April 1, 2017
There are many fans of the Duggars and Bates who want the families to become in-laws, but so far there has been no love connection between the stars of Counting On and Bringing Up Bates . However, Erin Bates Paine thinks it will happen someday .
“I personally think, hey you have 19 kids on each side, I think it’s almost inevitable somewhere down the line,” Erin told Entertainment Tonight of the possibility of a Bates marrying a member of the Duggar family. “As much as we see each other, I think there’s going to be an attraction somewhere. I don’t know where yet, but I think it’s gonna happen.”
[Featured Image by Carlin Bates/Instagram ]