Are Jana and Jill friends again?
In August, Jana Duggar married Stephen Whisman with no publicity whatsoever. Her sister, Jill Duggar, attended the wedding despite being estranged from some of the family.
But attending a wedding doesn’t necessarily mean everything will be great, especially if you have 500 or so guests.
What’s going on with Jana and Jill Duggar’s relationship these days?
What’s going on with Jana Duggar and Jill Duggar’s relationship?
On August 15, Jana Duggar married Steven Whisman.
Longtime observers of the Duggar family (not all of them “fans”) had all but given up on Jana, wondering how someone compatible with the Duggar family’s fundamentalist cult would marry someone as “old” as the 34-year-old eldest daughter.
But Jana clearly broke a lot of the Duggar family rules: She and Stephen were engaged, and the two were very close before the wedding. Even her wedding dress was out of line with the cult’s teachings.
This is relevant because Jana was the docile, overly cared for eldest daughter for a long time. She seems to be totally at Jim Bob’s mercy and is not even married (as many speculate) because Jim Bob and Michelle demanded that she continue to parent.
What’s going on now? Fans are starting to wonder if Jana’s rule-breaking hobby is drawing her closer to Jill.
After all, Jill has been the “black sheep” of the sisters for years, and maybe Jana knowing what freedom is like (relatively speaking) can help her understand why Jill escaped Jim Bob’s control.
Which siblings are avoiding Jill Duggar? Has Jana changed her tune?
In her memoir, Jill doesn’t specify which members of her toxic family were shunning her.
recently, Reddit Residents discussed the idea that the newly “liberated” Jana might be able to chat more freely with Jill.
Maybe she didn’t understand Jill before, but she does now.
Commenters were quick to point out that one theory is that Jana was with her family for two reasons: Josh Duggar and the kids.
Thankfully, Josh continues to lose on appeal, so perhaps Jana, for some reason, had to wait until Josh’s prison sentence was certain.
Additionally, throughout her life, she has cared for many younger brothers and sisters. Now that they are all grown up, Jana’s time as an unwilling mother may be over.
But there’s another theory.
One commenter even suggested that Jana Duggar was telling the truth: She didn’t think she’d met the right suitor until she met Steven Whissman (this time), and she’d been making her own choices for years, including staying single and getting married.
If that’s the case, the perceived rift between her and Jill may not disappear. “I don’t think marriage magically creates a new relationship between siblings,” one Reddit user wrote.
That being said, many siblings may sympathize with Jill, though of course Josh doesn’t, and several commenters pointed out that those who are alienating Jill may not have a choice, as they don’t want to incur Jim Bob’s wrath.
