There's been speculation for a long while that Jessa Duggar and her husband, Ben Seewald, were expecting another baby. Fans spotted a few potential signs over the past few months that their family might be expanding. And now there's an answer, but the announcement has left fans feeling "icky" and "manipulated."
Jessa and Ben shared a video on their YouTube channel showing how they told their kids the news.
Jessa and Ben posted a video on February 24 titled "Happy News and a House Move!" The 14-minute video contained an advertisement from a sponsor before jumping into the family content.
The video begins with Jessa and Ben sitting on the couch with their four kids: Spurgeon, Henry, Ivy, and Fern.
One by one, the kids are given a piece of paper with a clue written on it, and the kids have to guess what they all mean. Clues included "3+3+1" and a drawing of their family with six people. All the clues hinted that the family would welcome another baby.
The family was very excited, and the kids even suggested baby names.
The video then jumps into some updates about the house Jessa and Ben are renovating. Then the video jumps ahead in time to around Christmas.
Talking over a video of Ivy spinning in a cute purple dress with the Christmas tree behind her, Jessa gives an update on her pregnancy.
"Pregnancy is going really well," Jessa shares. "I'm feeling sick but that's a good sign I guess and just taking it day by day I feel like."
Then another time jump happened, but there was a different vibe.
Talking over a video pan of Jessa in black and white, the mom of four had another pregnancy update. "All seemed to be going well until just a few days before Christmas when I started having some spotting," she explains.
"Little did we know, our world was about to be turned upside down," she says before the video comes to an end with a photo of an ultrasound.
Another video was shared to Jessa and Ben's YouTube channel four hours later.
The new video was titled "Heartbreak Over the Holidays," and in the video, Jessa shares that she had a miscarriage.
"Honestly nothing could have prepared me for the weight of those words in that moment," Jessa says, referencing an appointment she had where she was told the baby didn't look good. "I had really allowed myself to become so hopeful because the spotting had stopped at that moment I was just in complete shock. I didn't even have words. I just immediately started crying."
She detailed the painful miscarriage process, and the candid nature of what she shared will likely help so many others who feel alone.
But fans of the Duggars weren't thrilled that Jessa split the pregnancy news and her miscarriage into two videos.
On the popular Reddit community, Duggar Snark, fans discussed the pregnancy news and the miscarriage, with some calling the videos "icky," "gross," and "manipulative."
In the thread, "So, Jessa DID lose the baby, but still put out the happy news video first? This feels so icky," hundreds of comments discussed the two new videos Jessa and Ben shared.
"Miscarriage as a cliff hanger is the point of contention here, I believe," one person wrote. "It needed to all be in one video, or announcement in one video and loss in a second, but the way she did it she used the threat of loss as a cliffhanger for views on her next video, which is gross imo."
"It is very emotionally manipulative," another critic wrote. "A text posting on IG would have been more appropriate."
"I can't articulate all of my conflicting opinions on those two videos clearly," someone else wrote. "She did exactly what Duggars do, though β and it's disgusting how they use their unborn children this way."
Others didn't think there was anything wrong with the two videos, noting that Jessa is able to process and share however she wishes.
Going through a miscarriage deserves support, no matter how it's announced, and we're sending love to the Seewalds.
