14 DAY TRIAL // Josh Duggar, the eldest son of disgraced reality stars Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar from TLC’s 19 Kids and Counting, checked himself into rehab the other day, after he got caught using the cheaters website Ashley Madison.
His wife, Anna, with whom he has 4 children, is now at the home of her parents-in-law, virtually a prisoner because she’s not allowed contact with anyone on the outside, let alone with those who might advise her to get a divorce.
Her parents are even more extreme in their strict beliefs, People Magazine reports.
Anna Duggar was raised to suffer in silence
This week’s issue of the celebrity publication, which, until not long ago, had been on the Duggars’ side, running flattering coverstories and exclusives, is going guns out with guns blazing against the family.
It depicts the family as a cult closed off from the world, the “Duggarville,” with patriarch Jim Bob holding the reins and ordering everyone around like a dictator. It also says that the children and their families have to follow strict rules, sometimes only for the reason that Jim Bob “says so.”
The mag also claims that Anna is a prisoner because she’s not allowed contact with her own family. Instead, she’s being told by Michelle and Jim Bob that she must pray and stand by her man, even if he turned out to be the exact opposite of what he claimed to be.
Not that Anna would find more support in her own parents, the publication says in a new report.
“Her parents are even a little more extreme,” says a source. “Anna and her siblings were always taught that if you follow these 10 steps or whatever, God would bless you.”
Growing up, Anna and her siblings had only 15 minutes a week to discuss emotional stuff with her mother, so they were indirectly told that it’s best to keep everything bottled up, to suffer in silence than to come across as complaining.
Anna is turning into her mother-in-law
With all that, Anna was a bubbly, fun and funny girl before she married Josh. She was always the one to invite her siblings to play a new game, but she was bossy enough to make sure everyone respected the rules.
According to the report, Anna is slowly but surely turning into her mother-in-law, Michelle Duggar, the same one of whom viewers of the family’s Fox News interview said she acted as if she’d been brainwashed or dumbed down with drugs.
The spark has left Anna, another insider reveals. Not only is she not having any fun anymore, but she acts as if she’s already given up. “She talks like her, real soft. She, like, whispers,” the source explains.
The bottom line is that Anna has no way out of this situation, except to suffer it for what it is. Neither the Duggars nor her own parents see divorce as an option, so since it doesn’t exist, no one’s talking about it to her.