Jinger Duggar grew up in front of the camera on 19 Kids and Counting, but the process began to change with her now-husband, Jeremy Vuolo, in the mix.
“Early days, first meals together, making small talk, the process of getting to know someone can feel a little awkward. But I would say that there’s probably not an adequate word for describing the unique kind of awkward it is to go through that whole process with cameras shoved in your faces and someone interrupting you when the conversation is just starting to flow,” Jinger, 31, wrote in her latest book, People Pleaser: Breaking Free From the Burden of Imaginary Expectations, out Tuesday, January 14.
Jinger referred to filming with her husband as “date-night-on-demand,” remembering being “instructed to repeat some of the same conversation and gestures” they’d made in a previous take.
“Fast-forward a few months, and I found myself walking down the staircase in my house toward Jeremy, anticipating that we might be about to make our relationship official. I took each stair carefully, smiling at Jer, butterflies in my stomach, excited to hear what he would say to me when I got to the bottom of the stairs,” she continued. “‘Cut! Jinger, go back up the stairs please! We need to start over to get the shot.’ OK.”
Jinger Duggar and Jeremy Vuolo’s Relationship Timeline
Reflecting on her people-pleasing tendencies, Jinger recalled dutifully walking back up the stairs and meeting Jeremy again. “He asked me to be his girlfriend, the sweetest moment,” she wrote. “And then we got to do it all over again because there was a mic issue. And then we had to do some more takes. And then we had to do cutaways.”
Jinger first appeared on TV with her family in a 2004 documentary about their daily lives. 19 Kids and Counting debuted on TLC in 2008 and aired until its 2015 cancellation. A spinoff titled Counting On, which focused on Jinger and her sisters Jill and Jessa Duggar, premiered later that year and was canceled in 2021.
Jeremy entered the picture in 2015 when he met Jinger during a mission trip. The couple tied the knot one year later and share daughters Felicity, 6, and Evangeline, 4. Jinger announced in October 2024 that she and Jeremy are expecting their third baby.
In her book, Jinger confessed that managing the “performance expectations” of producers and the camera crew felt “totally normal” for her. “It was all I had known since the age of 10,” she explained. “For Jeremy, for some of my other brothers-in-law who had joined the family by this point, it was anything but.”
Jinger Duggar Claims Her Family Sometimes ‘Didn’t Like’ Reality Show Edit
Earlier in People Pleaser, Jinger credited her husband for helping change her mindset when it comes to her faith. Jinger’s parents, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, raised their children under the conservative beliefs of the Institute in Basic Life Principles, but Jeremy gave his now-wife a new perspective.
According to Jinger, meeting Jeremy was like a breath of fresh air — “but it was also kind of terrifying,” she wrote.
“He was so handsome and so fun and so … alive,” Jinger continued. “Because I was so steeped in the IBLP way of looking at things, I thought it was a potential step into sin to even acknowledge that I was attracted to Jeremy, that I felt my heart tugged in his direction. … And once we fell in love, the vibrancy of Jeremy’s outlook, faith, and devotion began to crack open a wider world of mercy and grace to me.”
