Joy-Anna Duggar Forsyth and her husband, Austin, have officially left Counting On. The pair join Joy-Anna's older sister, Jill, who left the show with her husband, Derick Dillard, in 2017.
Joy-Anna and Austin haven't formally announced that they are no longer taking part in the show, but there have been several signs that trouble has been brewing for quite some time. Most notably, Joy-Anna, Austin, and their 2-year-old son, Gideon, are not featured in any of the promotional material and trailers for the 11th season of Counting On.
Joy-Anna and Austin have also separated their joint Instagram account so that they each have their own IG handle, and the pair recently launched their new YouTube channel, FollowtheForsyths. Joy-Anna has also displayed more subtle signs that she's not working under the thumb of her mom and dad, most recently by being photographed wearing a tank top. That might not be a big deal for most of us, but for a Duggar, it's the kind of thing that could easily erupt into mild controversy.
Of course, Joy-Anna hasn't shied away from sparking controversy over the years. Here are a few key moments that may have contributed to separating her from the rest of the family.
She got married quickly.
Joy-Anna and Austin sparked rumors of premarital relations when they changed their wedding date from October 2017 to May 2017. Joy-Anna revealed that she and Austin were expecting Gideon only three months after their wedding day. While it's possible that she simply conceived right away, it's also possible that she was already pregnant when she got married.
Fans of the show know that Jim Bob Duggar has some pretty strict rules in place for his family, especially for the girls. While their kids are "courting" potential partners, they have to make sure they adhere to each of the rules. These include limited physical contact and having chaperones present when they do spend time with the person they're interested in.
Austin's ties to a parenting book
Joy-Anna and Austin also courted controversy a few years ago when Austin's family supported the publication of a book called To Train Up a Child. A lot of the parenting methods in the book are definitely a little brutal, and the authors recommend "a good spanking instrument" such as rubber tubing when administering corporal punishment to children.
Austin's family has close ties with the book's authors, Debi and Michael Pearl. It turns out the authors are regular speakers at a camp that Austin's family runs, called Fort Rock Family Camp and Christian Retreat Center. The camp has been known to push controversial parenting methods, such as extreme corporal punishment.
Reviews of the camp itself have been mixed, and quite a few people have painted a fairly terrifying picture of what life at the camp is like. For example:
"The people who run this place are creepy. There is something off with that family and it permeates the entire place. I've done other research on this place and they promote some type of mind-controlling religious fundamentalism, the kind that does harm to people. I couldn't wait to get my children out of there."
Jill confirmed that she and her husband left the show in 2019. She explained, "We get asked that a lot.… No plans to [return to the show] currently. It just all got to be too much for our little family, so we decided to step away from it all a couple years ago before the birth of our second child."
Derick has also alleged that Jim Bob has withheld money that his children earned from appearing on the show. He also said that he and Jill aren't even welcome at the family home: "I think he's mainly worried about the influence we might have on his children."
Joy-Anna and Austin haven't indicated that they plan to take actions as drastic as Jill and Derick. The two are currently expecting their second child together, and they've shared that their baby girl is due on August 19, 2020. So it's likely that they have other things on their minds right now.
However, Derick has stoked the flames of the fire by commenting on TLC's Instagram account about Joy-Anna and Austin's plans. He recently wrote, "I wish all the siblings would have been invited to family game night by Zoom. We quit filming, not family life. Joy and Austin also quit filming, but they were there."
So far, Joy-Anna hasn't indicated anything except joy about the impending arrival of her baby girl. She has shared that she and Austin don't plan to decide on a name until they meet their baby, which is a slightly unusual move for the Duggar family, as they tend to announce baby names ahead of time.
