Jason Duggar’s wife, Maddie Duggar, is clarifying how the couple met — and whether she knew of his family’s fame before they got married.
“We actually met through Instagram,” Maddie, 21, said in a YouTube Q&A video posted on Thursday, April 24. “There are rumors that I am a crazy fangirl. I am a fan of [Jason] now, but no, I was not a crazy fangirl.”
According to Maddie, she was “not an avid fan” of Jason’s large family but had seen “a few episodes” of TLC’s 19 Kids and Counting and Counting On.
“My family did watch a few episodes, like, on a beach vacation randomly,” Maddie said. “So, I was on TikTok one day and I was scrolling along, and it was a video of where each of the Duggar kids is now. I was like, ‘Oh, I remember them. I’ve seen them before.’”
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Once Jason’s face popped up on screen, Maddie thought he was cute and wanted “to know more” since they were about the same age. So, she did what the rest of Us would do and found him on Instagram.
“I was like, ‘He is cute, he works out,’” Maddie recalled, joking that his shirtless pictures “really got” her attention. “I’m scrolling, like, I see a tour of [his] tree house video. I thought it was really cool and I ‘liked’ it. That was about it [and] I didn’t think anything was going to come of that. He was just a cute guy on Instagram.”
Jason, 25, saw Maddie’s subtle “like” and comment, accidentally tapping on the “message” button instead of dropping a heart reaction. They soon started chatting in the DMs as long-distance friends. (Maddie and her family were based in Tennessee, while the Duggars live in Arkansas.)
“I texted her around New Year’s,” Jason said, noting he asked for her phone number to get the chat out of the DMs. “It was rough because the FaceTime calls were really strange, and for both of us, it’s just odd when you don’t know someone.”
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Maddie, meanwhile, said that they were both too nervous to exhibit any type of “chemistry” for a potential romance.
“[He] was like, ‘Maybe we should just be friends,’ and at that point it clicked,” she said. “I was like, ‘Well, now that we’re just friends, I can really be myself.’”
Becoming friends also helped Jason see how “awesome” Maddie was as a person.
“She loves the Lord and she’s, like, normal and that’s when it clicked,” Jason recalled. “I was like, ‘OK, I really love this girl,’ and so I had to backtrack because I already said, ‘Let’s just be friends.’”
To change her mind, Jason asked if he could visit Maddie in Tennessee for the weekend, and they had “such a good time” together.
Jason and Maddie, who hadn’t heard of his family’s controversial IBLP religion at that point, opted to date instead of pursue a courtship like most of the Duggar couples.
“We didn’t, like, have a chaperone or anything. We did always try and be wise,” Jason said, revealing that the pair kissed before getting married in October 2024. “Growing up in my family, that was against the rules, but for Maddie and I, that’s not a conviction that we have. … It was something we were OK with.”
