10 Facts About the Duggar Family You Never Knew Before

You’ve probably heard of the large devout Independent Baptist family out of Arkansas by now. They’ve starred in their own reality series for the last seven years; 19 Kids and Counting. But recently, TLC cancelled the show because of sexual molestation allegations against eldest child Josh. We wanted to uncover some more Duggar family secrets. Here are ten facts about the Duggar family that you never knew before.

1. Birth Control Beliefs

Surprisingly, the extremely conservative Christian parents did use birth control when they first married. Jim Bob and Michelle who wed in 1984, at age 19 and 17 respectively, wanted to wait before having children and used birth control pills in the early years of their marriage. Their eldest child, Joshua, was born in 1988. They started using oral contraceptives after Josh’s birth but conceived again despite this precaution. Michelle miscarried that pregnancy and the Duggars believed that the miscarriage was due to their use of contraceptives, so they decided to stop using birth control. Jim Bob and Michelle believed that God was meant to determine the number of children they would have.