Jinger Duggar Courtesy of Jinger Vuolo/Instagram
Jinger Duggar is sharing how she really feels about being raised under the fundamentalist Christian teachings of the Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP) organization.
During the Wednesday, February 12, episode of the “Jinger & Jeremy Podcast,” the former TLC star and her husband, Jeremy Vuolo, answered frequently asked questions from fans.
“Are you angry at your parents, [Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar], for leading you to follow the Institute of Basic Life Principles?” Vuolo, 37, asked his wife.
Jinger, 31, wasted no time replying. “No,” she said. “And I can say that very clearly because I see how so many families … wanted the guarantee for success for their kids. They were promised it. And they said, ‘If you do this, your kids will turn out.’ And so I think that a lot of parents who walked into [IBLP], they were well-meaning.”
Jinger Duggar has been honest about the challenges of growing up in the TLC spotlight — and of breaking free from the conservative teachings of her childhood. Jinger is one of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar’s 19 children who were raised as followers of the Institute in Basic Life Principles, a fundamentalist organization founded by […]
Jinger acknowledged that “there will be challenges and struggles that I face” because of the way she was raised. “It’s not always easy. … And looking at it as a parent now, I can see how easy it was for my parents to get wrapped up in that teaching,” she continued. “They went into it thinking, ‘This is how we’re going to teach our kids to love Jesus.’ And who doesn’t want that?”
The Duggar family visits “Extra” at their New York studios at H&M in Times Square on March 11, 2014 in New York City. D Dipasupil/Getty Images for Extra
According to Jinger, many families ended up not seeing the “success” that was promised by IBLP and its founder, the controversial minister Bill Gothard. “And that’s what’s heartbreaking,” she explained. “Because as a parent, you want to make the best decisions, pray through what you’re supposed to do, and I really believe my parents sought to do that for us kids. … I don’t have any anger toward them for it because, I mean, I just see [that] they did their best. They did what they thought was right in the moment.”
Jinger and her 18 siblings grew up following Gothard’s teachings, which included homeschooling and dressing modestly. In an exclusive interview with Us Weekly, Jinger previously described her upbringing as “cult-like in many ways.”
“It was built on fear, manipulation, control and superstition, so all those things combined in how hard it is for kids to leave or adults to leave — anyone, really. … Once you hear the teachings, you’re not supposed to depart from those,” she told Us in January 2023.
Jinger recalled feeling “gripped with fear” when she was younger. “[I’d be] thinking, ‘OK, am I pleasing to God? I don’t know what God expects of me.’ And so I would be so terrified to, like, even go play sports with my siblings. [I’d think], ‘Maybe I’m supposed to stay home and read my Bible for hours and hours. I’m not sure,’” she continued. “So that kind of fear did cripple me.”
19 Kids and Counting alum Jinger Duggar has love for her parents, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, despite their differences. “I’m grateful for my childhood. It was not perfect. I shared a lot of difficulties that I struggled with throughout my childhood, but at the end of the day, I’m grateful for my parents,” Jinger, […]
The Counting On alum reflected on her childhood further in her books Becoming Free Indeed and People Pleaser, the latter of which was released this year. She referred to IBLP as “a form of faux Christianity that was all built on the appearance of holiness,” writing in People Pleaser, “If you messed up in that setting, you were at risk for losing your community by not living up to the Gothard standards.”
Jinger isn’t the only Duggar to distance herself from the IBLP lifestyle. Her sister Jill Duggar has also been candid about leaving the ultraconservative practice behind — and about her strained relationship with Jim Bob, 59, and Michelle, 58. Jinger, however, has insisted that she feels “grateful” for the upbringing she had.
“It was not perfect … but at the end of the day, I’m grateful for my parents,” Jinger said on the “Unplanned” podcast in June 2024. “I love them, we have differences, everything’s not perfect between us, but I think that at the end of the day, I love them and I know that they know that.”
