This Duggar Theory Could Explain Why Certain Family Members Went MIA Before Josh's Arrest

Fans were shocked when news of Josh Duggar's arrest first broke in 2021, but maybe it's something that everyone should have seen coming all along. According to a 19 Kids and Counting fan theory, the Duggar family was actually exhibiting some pretty weird behavior in the months leading up to the bust that could easily be explained by the idea that the family knew Josh's legal problems were about to unfold — and that actually makes a lot of sense.

Just before Josh's arrest went public, some of the family changed their social media habits.

As a fan on a popular Duggar subreddit pointed out, it was around November 2020 that things started changing for the family. We started hearing less and less from Josiah and Lauren Duggar (the couple hasn't posted publicly on their Instagram since November 8) and about the same time, Jeremy and Jinger Vuolo stopped sharing their daughters' faces on social media — something they would later explain as a way of maintaining their privacy.

This also may have been a sign that the Duggars were fighting.

Maybe there was an inkling that something was coming down the pipeline for Josh, and as this theory explains, it could have created a rift in the family between those who were horrified by his behavior and those who — like Josh's dad, Jim Bob Duggar, and Josh's wife, Anna — planned to stand by him through this.

Talk to moms about mom stuff. And make money doing it.

Why did this truly start to unfold at the end of 2020, though?

Well, Jed Duggar was running for local office at the time, of course. Even though he didn't win, there's a chance his family wanted to keep the Josh drama as low-key as possible so nothing would take away from Jed's election.

Then, election day arrived, Jed lost, and Jim Bob and Michelle decided to tell the family everything they knew — and that's when the you-know-what hit the fan.

Honestly, this theory is sounding more and more plausible.

Since then, all of the family's big moments have been surprisingly downplayed.

Signs that things were truly going downhill happened when Justin Duggar and Claire Spivey began their controversial courtship, making it seem like they were about to share everything on Counting On. The show never returned, and they ended up getting engaged and married months later without sharing too many of the details.

Since then, there have been courtships, engagements, weddings, and new babies that have happened totally under the radar, and Jim Bob and Michelle haven't posted on their family's official Instagram account in nearly two years.

Splash News

There may have been a lot more going on behind the scenes than we realized.

And of course, times like this are exactly when we wish the TLC cameras have been rolling, but we may never know for sure what was happening under Jim Bob's roof as Josh's trial played out — or even now that he's serving time in federal prison.

With Jill and Jinger's recent memoir releases, though, there's always that chance that more intel is on the way. Fingers crossed we end up getting more details soon.

Josh Duggar Duggar family Counting on Duggars 19 Kids and Counting