Jana Duggar: "Wedding Selfie" Sparks Controversy

If you follow the ever-expanding Duggar clan closely, then you’re likely aware that Joy-Anna Duggar married Austin Forsyth over Memorial Day weekend.

We’ll know more about it when Counting On returns June 12, but the ceremony was likely attended by every Arkansas native who isn’t married to Hillary Clinton.

Joy-Anna’s wedding photos have been making the rounds online, and they depict the usual scenes we’ve come to expect from a Duggar wedding:

1. Ecstasy and nervousness in the eyes of two young people who are finally permitted to touch a member of the opposite sex.

2. Jim Bob creepily overseeing the proceedings like some sort of god-like figure who’s way too involved in his daughter’s sex lives.

3. And of course, Jana Duggar playing 18th fiddle.

Quietly working her tail off behind the scenes, it’s Jana’s role to take care of kids and manage all the details her parents can’t be bothered with.

Jana’s earned the nickname "the Cinderella Duggar" thanks to her years of tireless toil in service of her parents and siblings.

The Duggars, of course, have long been selling the idea that Jana enjoys staying on the compound and homeschooling eight minors.

They attempted to drive that point home by posting the photo above, featuring their maligned eldest daughter, in Joy-Anna’s wedding album.

Matriarch Michelle Duggar captioned the pic:

"Jana decided it was time to get out of the house for an afternoon hike and she had plenty who wanted to go with her!" 

Yes, Jana – who’s been caring for children for as long as she’s been able to care for herself – decided to go for a pre-wedding walk in the woods.

Probably to reflect on her own position in life and/or clear her head of all the noise and chaos … and she was followed by 12 freakin’ people.

If that’s not the smile of a woman on the verge of losing it, we don’t know what is, and the reaction to the photo was decidedly mixed.

Some Duggar fans continued to heap praise upon the family, while others pointed out that Jana’s existence seems uniquely hellish:

“The reason Jana isn’t married is this picture," one wrote.

"She is in charge of raising the younger children. She isn’t allowed by daddy. He also doesn’t allow the Duggar girls to get a college education."

"They are married off to make more children."

Harsh, but that viewpoint was hardly an outlier; Duggar Nation has been fascinated by and worried about Jana for a long, long time.

“Is this poor girl ever NOT on kid duty?” commented another concerned fan. “Can’t they just leave Jana alone sometimes?"

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Yet another observer chimed in to criticize the family, adding: "Do they have to be with the poor girl everywhere she goes?”

Of course, it’s possible that the only person who’s not royally pissed off about Jana Duggar’s situation is … Jana Duggar.

After all, you really never see the girl without a smile on her face. Whether she’s hiding inner tumult or not, girl is a saint.

That said, we wouldn’t be surprised to learn she’s been chipping away at her bedroom wall behind a poster of Rita Hayworth all these years.

Maybe June 12 will bring us more insight.

The family reality show returns then, and in the meantime, you can watch Counting On online to decide for yourself if Jana is happy …

… or barely clinging to sanity.

The Hollywood Gossip

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