Those who have watched the docuseries Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets noticed a couple of familiar families among those who were interviewed, but certain people were missing. That included Jinger Duggar, and now she's speaking out about why she refused to participate in the series that exposed her family's cult-like religion, the Institute in Basic Life Principles, or IBLP.
More from CafeMom: Jim Bob & Michelle Duggar Speak Out After Jill's Participation in 'Derogatory' Docuseries
Jinger revealed that she had been approached to be part of the series.
In an interview with People, Jinger shared that she had been approached by the producers but ultimately chose not to go forward.
"I thought that from my perspective, I really wanted to make sure that I was able to share my story in my own words and in my own timing," Jinger said. "So that's why I wrote Becoming Free Indeed, was to share more of my journey out of IBLP's teachings. I wanted to be able to share it in a way that was, like, God-honoring and hopefully sharing my story in a balanced way."
She wanted to tell her story 'in book form' instead.
"The reason I decided to write Becoming Free Indeed in a book form was because I thought, 'I want this to be my story in a book form because then whenever people are trying to work through this stuff, they can go back and highlight,' and [go], 'Oh, she was struggling with this too. This is how Jinger kind of walked through it,'" she told the magazine.
It did make sense for her in the end — Becoming Free Indeed ended up becoming a New York Times best-selling book.
That doesn't mean she's not cheering Jill on, though.
Her sister, Jill, ended up being a big part of the series, and Jinger pointed out in the interview that she should be able to "have her voice" in all of this as well.
"I am excited to hear what she has to say, even in this documentary," Jinger said.
More from CafeMom: Joy-Anna Duggar Accused of Using Her Baby To 'Distract' Critics From Damaging Documentary
She's been extra careful about what she says publicly.
According to what Jinger told People, she has a "healthy respect" for the power of her words after growing up in the spotlight.
"I wanted to make sure that I could share my story in a comfortable setting for me," she said. "The docuseries, I'm sure, will have a lot of interesting points to make about IBLP, and I'm eager to watch it."
Jinger's interested to see how her family responds.
"I think we'll wait and see," Jinger said when asked about how she thinks her family will react. "I think everyone will have their own responses and their own timing, and that's just part of how we process."
Although Jim Bob and Michelle have made their stance against the docuseries clear — and their son Jed seems to be on their side — we haven't heard much about how their other children are taking it. It'll definitely be interesting to see how things unfold from here.
