No bad blood here. Jessa Duggar has made it clear that she and older sister Jill Duggar are still close — no matter what they share on social media.
Fans began speculating that the pair were feuding after Jessa seemingly skipped out on the certified midwife’s July 2022 baby shower, which was thrown by their cousin Amy Duggar. However, the Counting On alum made it clear that she was, in fact, present at the celebrations for Jill’s third child, claiming she just wasn’t in any of the photos that were shared on social media. (Jill, who also shares sons Israel and Samuel with Derick Dillard, welcomed son Freddy later that month.)
“Please let’s not assume there’s a negative motive behind everything we do and do not do,” Jessa wrote via Instagram at the time. “These rumors make me angry, and I’m here to put a stop to it. The narrative these kinds of comments put forward is a false one. Simply not true.”
She continued: “We spend plenty of time together even if there aren’t photos circulating on the internet to prove it. … Not every gathering has to be a photo op. Quit spreading hate.”
Though the duo appear to be on good terms, the sisters have experienced plenty of ups and downs with their family over the years. In June 2015, both Jill and Jessa revealed during an interview with Megyn Kelly that they had been molested by older brother Josh Duggar when they were growing up. “We feel like, as victims, we have to come out and speak. This is something that we chose to do. Nobody asked us to do this,” Jill said at the time, adding that both she and her sister had “forgiven” Josh for his past actions.
“I think in the case of what Josh did, it was very wrong. I’m not going to justify anything that he did or say it was OK. It’s not permissible. But I do want to speak up in his defense against people who are calling him a child molester or a pedophile or a rapist,” Jessa said. “That is so overboard and a lie, really.”
When their family’s original TLC series, 19 Kids and Counting, was canceled in the wake of Josh’s scandals, Jill and Jessa teamed up for a series of specials that would eventually become Counting On. The early episodes, filmed in late 2015, initially centered on the sisters’ lives as new mothers, but several of their other siblings eventually joined the show over the course of its run.
Jessa remained part of the show until its June 2021 cancellation, but Jill left in 2017 after six seasons, which caused some tension between her and her family. “There’s been some distancing there,” the mother of three explained in an October 2020 YouTube video. “We’re not on the best terms with some of my family. We’ve had some disagreements, but we’re working toward healing definitely and restoration, but we’re having to kind of just take some time and heal.”
Keep scrolling to learn more about Jill and Jessa’s relationship over the years: