Those who have followed the Duggars since their 19 Kids and Counting days know the fundamentalist Christian family adheres to strict rules regarding modesty and “purity.” Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar expected their children to have extremely limited physical contact while courting — including only side-hugging, not holding hands until they’re engaged, and not having sex or even kissing until they’re married. Evidently, Joy-Anna Duggar’s father scolded her for breaking a courtship rule after her now-husband, Austin Forsyth totaled his truck.
Joy-Anna and Austin announced their courtship in November 2016 before revealing their engagement in March 2017. They married that May. Since then, the former Counting On stars have welcomed three children: Gideon, 6, Evelyn, 4, and Gunner, 17 months.
More from CafeMom: 17 Times Jana Duggar Defied Her Family’s Rules
Recently, Joy-Anna and Austin appeared on the 'Unplanned' podcast.
On October 16, the Unplanned podcast published a YouTube interview with Joy-Anna and Austin. The former TLC stars spoke on a variety of topics during their sit-down with hosts Matt and Abby Howard. At one point, the foursome discussed a time when Austin totaled his vehicle and Joy broke a major courtship rule while comforting him.
They recounted a time when Joy comforted Austin after totaling his truck while they were courting.
On the podcast, the couple explained that they were driving in separate vehicles from Austin’s parents’ house while courting but not yet engaged.
“I’m probably like 5 minutes ahead of you,” she says to Austin. “And he gets in a wreck and totals his truck.” (Austin notes a “meth head ran me off the road” so instead of hitting the other vehicle, he opted for the ditch.)
Joy adds, “It was bad. He could have died.”
Joy-Anna ended up breaking a courtship rule while comforting Austin after the wreck.
Instead of going directly to the scene of the accident, Joy-Anna, then 18 or 19, called her dad, met him in town, and drove back with Jim Bob to go to Austin. “I run up, give him a big hug,” she recalls. “The rest of the time, I’m holding onto his arm. Which at this point, we weren’t holding hands yet.”
Joy-Anna was crying and holding Austin’s arm for about 10 to 15 minutes at the time.
More from CafeMom: Joy-Anna Duggar Tearfully Says Her Life Came ‘Crumbling Down’ When Her Sisters’ Books Were Released
Jim Bob made her stop after one of Joy's brothers pointed out the violation.
“Well, my brother that comes with my dad is like, ‘Pops, Joy has been holding onto Austin’s arm this whole time. And they’re courting. They’re not even supposed to be holding hands,'” Joy-Anna recounts.
“And Pops looks back kind of like annoyed,” she continues. “He’s like, ‘You should probably let go of his arm.’ And I’m like looking at my brother like so annoyed. But I was like, whatever, it’s fine.”
In the comments of Joy's Instagram post, followers slammed her parents.
Joy-Anna’s Instagram followers didn’t hold back with their reactions to the story. One person wrote, “This is genuinely so sad. Shame on Jim Bob for this and many other things.”
Another Instagram user pointed out, “The problem is they were raised to believe all contact between man and woman is sexual. The simple act of comforting someone is turned into a perverse act.”
Meanwhile, someone else made a dig at Joy-Anna’s parents and disgraced older brother, Josh, in one fell swoop. As the person commented, “They [were] so worried about her holding his arm for too long, but swept Josh’s actions under the rug? Thats messed up.”
