Alert – Jinger Duggar reveals gender of her unborn baby and compares family upbringing to growing up in a ‘cult’

Jinger Duggar Vuolo revealed the baby gender of her upcoming third child on Tuesday, and also made strong remarks about her upbringing in the reality TV family amid the staunch religious beliefs of her parents, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar.

Jinger, 31, who has been wed to husband Jeremy Vuolo, 37, for eight years, told Entertainment Tonight Tuesday she is expecting a boy in March.

‘We’re having a boy and we’re very excited,’ said Jinger, who shares daughters Felicity, six, and Evangeline, three, with Vuolo. 

The Arkansas-born reality star said the gender reveal even caught her off-guard: ‘I was so shocked to find out it was a boy, because I feel like everything felt the same. I actually had a lot of similarities to the pregnancy with the girls.’

She added: ‘I was so shocked, I almost fell off my chair. I was like, “How is this the boy gonna fit in?” But we are keeping the name a secret until the baby’s born, which is what we always do.’

Jinger told the show her rationale in keeping the name of the child private until the time of birth.

Jinger Duggar Vuolo, 31, revealed the baby gender of her upcoming third child on Tuesday, and also made strong remarks about her Arkansas upbringing in the reality TV family amid the staunch religious beliefs of her parents, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar.

‘We’ve had like friends who’ve had issues with people like, “Oh, I’m gonna share the name, and then no one likes it,”‘ Jinger said. ‘But once that baby’s born, everybody thinks it’s the cutest name ever. So that’s our that’s our motto, our theory on it.’

The reality star made multiple media appearances Tuesday as she promoted the release of book People Pleaser: Breaking Free from the Burden of Imaginary Expectations.

Speaking with Fox News Digital, Jinger said she realized as an adult she had an upbringing that was ‘cult-like in many ways’ under Jim Bob and Michelle’s watch.

Jinger previously penned the 2023 book Becoming Free Indeed, which detailed her 2017 defection from the church she was raised in, the Institute for Basic Life Principles (IBLP).

‘I exposed the harmful teachings I was raised under, but then I began to realize that I was so entrapped by what people think about me that I was almost unwilling to speak on this topic,’ she told Fox. ‘I was so afraid of losing my community, my friends, my family, those who I love so dearly.’

She added, ‘I thought if I spoke up against them, then I would be putting everything on the line – and as a people pleaser, it was the disapproval that I faced that I feared the most.’

Jinger told ET that she has a ‘complicated’ relationship with her parents amid her outspokenness: ‘There are definitely difficulties, things that we don’t see eye-to-eye on.’ 

Jinger also made strong remarks about her upbringing in the reality TV family amid the staunch religious beliefs of her parents, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar (pictured in 2014)

Speaking with Fox News Digital, Jinger said she realized as an adult she had an upbringing that was ‘cult-like in many ways’ under Jim Bob and Michelle’s watch 

Change of scenery

Jinger told Fox that a move out of Laredo, Texas opened her eyes and ‘hit [her] like a ton of bricks’ in how she came off to people she didn’t know well. 

‘I was in Laredo for two-and-a-half years,’ she said. ‘As we were leaving Texas, one of the ladies in our community said, “I’m going to miss you, but I also feel like I didn’t get to know you – maybe you didn’t let me into your life as much as I would’ve wished.”‘

She continued, ‘I had been so guarded. I had been so afraid of what people thought about me that I wanted to keep up this performance. I was afraid that if I showed them that I had hard days, they wouldn’t like me. Maybe they thought I was insecure about what I didn’t know.’

Jinger said that she got a chilly reception from some people in her family over the contents of her first book.

‘It was difficult because I did receive some criticism from friends and loved ones,’ Jinger said. ‘I think it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but I realized that at the end of the day, I had to speak my truth.’

Jinger said that ‘at the same time, there was an overwhelming majority of them who were helped’ by her publicly questioning the validity of the church’s teachings. She said, ‘They thought, “I haven’t stopped to consider if these teachings are accurate.”‘ 

She added, ‘Helping people come out of the cult-like teachings that I was raised under was the most rewarding thing; looking back, I could have remained silent as a people pleaser.

‘But then so many people would still be stuck with those teachings. It has been more encouraging than anything just to see the number of people who’ve been helped by me sharing my story.’

Josh Duggar is currently serving a 12 1/2-year prison sentence in connection with his 2021 conviction for downloading images of child sexual abuse. Pictured in a December 2021 mug shot 

Josh Duggar’s problematic past & legal troubles  

The Duggar family’s TLC reality series 19 Kids and Counting was canceled in July of 2015 after Josh Duggar’s past history of molestation surfaced.

A probe of Josh was conducted in 2006 after an associate of the family tipped them off, but officials cited the statute of limitations in deciding against pursuing charges at that time.

Josh Duggar is currently serving a 12 1/2-year prison sentence in connection with his 2021 conviction for downloading images of child sexual abuse.

Federal officials who probed Josh Duggar said that he’d downloaded the illegal images at an auto dealership he’d been working at in Arkansas.

Authorities who probed Josh Duggar’s computer testified that in 2019, they located images ‘depicting the sexual abuse of children, including toddlers,’ according to the the AP.

In June, the Supreme Court rejected an appeal from Josh Duggar to his 2021 conviction. The U.S.’s highest court ‘did not elaborate on the denial, as is typical,’ according to the AP.

Previously, Josh Duggar’s conviction had been upheld by the lower courts, who did not accept his case that his lawyers should have been permitted to inquire about an ex-employee at the car dealership who had a previous sex-offense conviction on their record; and had used the computer at the center of the case.

Attorneys for Josh Duggar did not question the ex-employee in testimony after the judge said they were prohibited from mentioning the ex-employee’s sex-offense conviction, according to the AP.

Before his past had been revealed, Josh Duggar had been working as a lobbyist for the Family Research Council, a conservative organization. His current date of release from custody is slated for October 2, 2032, InTouch reported.