The Duggar family has made headlines for nearly two decades.
From Michelle Duggar announcing another pregnancy at the beginning to wardrobe changes for some of the older sisters, there are new stories daily about someone in the family.
While some of the rumors turn out to be true days or months later, there is a lot that never gets confirmation from the family or is ultimately proven untrue.
Most of the rumors fixate on courtships and pregnancies, though some have been more sinister. Despite the reality TV show being canceled a few months back, the surface-level speculations continue to swirl today.
These are 10 of the rumors about the Duggar family that turned out to be fake.
Jana Duggar is gay
For years, this rumor has come and gone. Jana Duggar denies she is interested in women, though some Counting On followers believe that her friendship with Laura DeMasie is more than that.
The women travel together a lot, and neither is married. There was even speculation that Jim Bob Duggar wanted Laura to move away so Jana could be away from her friend.
Despite all of the rumors, it turns out that the eldest Duggar daughter has tried to find her perfect partner. Jana maintains that suitors attempted to court her, but nothing ever works out like it’s supposed to.
Jana Duggar dating Lawson Bates
If Jana wasn’t linked to Laura, she was linked to Lawson Bates.
This is likely because the Duggars and Bates families were good friends. Several of the children from both families have strong friendships, but none have dated…yet.
Lawson Bates is several years younger than Jana, but the two have hung out in groups for years. He has been seeing a girl named Tiffany, and Jana remains single for now.
Even though they were not romantically involved, the amount of time they spent together was significant enough to conclude they may be interested in each other.
TLC fired Derick Dillard
After some very public and discriminatory remarks made by Derick Dillard against a fellow TLC star, it was believed that the network cut ties with him and Jill Duggar.
That was not the case, though. He and Jill walked away from the show due to personal reasons and to protect their mental health.
TLC issued a statement that confirmed they were no longer involved with Derick or Jill, but not that they fired him after his attacks about Jazz Jennings on Twitter.
Anna Duggar didn’t know about Josh Duggar’s sordid past
In 2015, a scandal surrounding Josh Duggar broke. A police report highlighted inappropriate touching of several underage females by him. The victims turned out to be his sisters and a family friend.
Following the revelation, speculation went wild about Anna Duggar and whether she knew about what happened. The couple had been married several years at that point, and many followers believed she was blindsided by it.
However, it was confirmed that he had confessed to her before they tied the knot. Anna knew about what Josh did to his sisters and married him anyway. It was stunning to learn she was informed and still went through with the wedding.
Duggar marriages are arranged
Believing that the Duggar marriages are arranged isn’t too much of a stretch. It seems everything happened fast once Jill married Derick, and from there, several of the siblings married off.
When Derick Dillard and Jill Duggar met, Jim Bob Duggar knew him. This may have been an encouraged marriage, but it wasn’t necessarily “arranged.”
Jeremy Vuolo has talked in-depth about Jim Bob’s questionnaire for the men who want to date his daughters. It is lengthy and hits all the points one could ask for it to hit.
Some of the matches seem to be off among the married couples, but anything arranged has been denied repeatedly. The Duggars do not tell their children who to marry.
James Duggar is Amy Duggar’s child
Amy Duggar King has always been more worldly than her cousins. Rumors about James Duggar not being Jim Bob and Michelle’s child have circulated over and over again.
The theory was some viewers believed cousin Amy found herself pregnant and her aunt and uncle took on the baby.
That is not the case at all. Amy Duggar King wasn’t a teen mom, and she only has one child, Daxton, who she shares with her husband, Dillon.
Where the rumor came from is unknown, but some critics still mention it today.
Josh Duggar died
The weeks following his April arrest had Josh Duggar making headlines. Earlier this year, a rumor swept social media that the disgraced reality TV star was dead.
It came from a clickbait-type of article that was posted, and several people ran with it.
Josh Duggar isn’t dead, and he has never been in a position health-wise where that could have been a possibility. He is facing a lot of time if convicted on the two child pornography charges he was indicted on, but that’s his biggest crisis right now.
Josiah Duggar is gay
Over the years, there has been plenty of speculation about Josiah Duggar and his sexual orientation.
Critics and followers have questioned the Counting On star based on his actions and tones, but the denials he’s gay have been persistent.
He’s married to Lauren Swanson, and the two share a little girl, Bella Milagro, together. Lauren experienced a miscarriage with her first pregnancy and fell pregnant with her daughter not long after.
Lauren isn’t the only woman Josiah was linked to either. He was in a previous courtship with Marjorie Jackson in 2015. Things between them fell apart when Josh Duggar’s scandal broke. That caused a rift, and the couple split after a few months.
While being married to a woman doesn’t eliminate the fact that he could still be gay, the family denies that is the case despite the rumor circulating for several years on and off.
Being prone to rumors is something the Duggar family faced while living in the public eye. Many of them have been proven untrue, but some stories did have truth to them.
These are some of the rumors that have circulated without any merit. Many of them focus on the sexual orientation of the children and others about hoaxes and other events involving dating and paternity.