Michelle Duggar's Secret Past

TLC celebrity Michelle Duggar is one of those reality stars who will probably always pique people's interest. From Duggar's big brood (19 kids, to be exact) to her signature soft voice, there are many things about her life that fans find captivating. But most of all, the public is especially interested in who she was pre-19 Kids & Counting and Counting On fame. That curiosity is legit when you consider Duggar rarely opens up about her personal history — something many people find suspicious. So, what's the deal with Duggar's hush-hush background? There has to be at least one or two skeletons lurking in her closet, right? 

As it turns out, there's a laundry list of secrets Duggar has kept under wraps throughout the years — a fact that might shock her conservative fanbase. Yep, while Duggar waxed poetic to reality show cameras about the importance of living a squeaky clean and honest life, she was concealing some explosive secrets of her own. Let's take a look at what Duggar has been hiding from us. 

Considering Michelle Duggar is tight-lipped about pretty much everything besides her kids' weddings and pregnancies, people were understandably shocked when she admitted to struggling with bulimia as a young teen. 

In a rare moment of candor, Duggar revealed that she became bulimic at age 14 in an attempt to cope with her body image issues. "I found out that genetically I could put on weight easily, but with my activities, gymnastics and cheerleading, it was important for me not to," Duggar told People. "I would look around and compare myself to my friends, saying, 'oh my, she's so small,' or 'she has such skinny legs.'" 

Her condition grew severe. "I didn't tell any of my friends what I was going through," she said. "I was doing it sometimes on a daily basis, or sometimes I would go a week. I felt this was the answer to my problems." 

Luckily, Duggar was able to overcome this serious issue when she met her now-husband, Jim Bob Duggar, at age 16. Michelle revealed that after she told Jim Bob her "secret," she was "set free" because he held her "accountable" each time she expressed a desire to go back to her old habits. As one might imagine, the support Jim Bob provided Duggar during this time is one of the reasons she fell deeply in love with him.

You don't need to be a 19 Kids & Counting diehard to know that Michelle Duggar prefers, ahem, conservative clothing. From prairie-style dresses to Duggar's controversial beliefs about dressing modestly, her distaste of revealing outfits is no secret. With that being said, we have a jaw-dropping truth bomb to fill you guys in on — Duggar supposedly was a fan of bikinis during her teenage years. 

Making matters even more wild, one of Duggar's former neighbors claims Duggar wore skimpy bathing suits while she mowed the lawn. The neighbors "used to complain because she'd mow the lawn in a bikini and wear short skirts," the neighbor told Star. "They were always trying to get her to cover up her legs. And so were her parents." Jeez, is that not shocking imagery or what? 

Needless to say, the ex-neighbor is shocked by Duggar's transformation from rebel teen to the woman who told TLC: "By keeping those private areas covered, there's not any 'defrauding' going on. My kids are taught the definition of defrauding as stirring up desires that cannot be righteously fulfilled. We don't believe in defrauding others by the way we dress." 

When the tea-spilling neighbor was asked about Duggar's transformation, he told Star: "I've seen commercials for the show, but I never in a million years would've believed that's Michelle!" Yeah, we're having a hard time wrapping our heads around this too.

As upfront as Michelle Duggar might be about her conservative views, she's less forthcoming about her family members. Case in point: When her sister, Kathie Ann Arnold, passed away in March 2013 at age 60, she didn't say one peep about the sad news publicly. Although it's not clear how Arnold died or if Duggar attended the funeral, it seems that this information was intentionally kept a secret. But why was Arnold's death hidden? 

One possible scenario is that Duggar was never close with Arnold, a theory that's backed up by a quote from her aforementioned sister, Evelyn Ruark. "I think my mother and father wanted two different families, because Michelle and Carol are the second generation. And the rest of us, the first five, were pretty much grown when they were younger," she said (via InTouch Weekly). 

Hmm, if Duggar didn't grow up with Arnold, it might explain why she chose not to address her death with fans. Another possibility is that Duggar wanted to keep Arnold's passing a family matter rather than a televised event, which seems totally fair.

It's not necessarily earth shattering news that the Duggars are rumored to hold anti-LGBTQ views. In fact, Michelle Duggar basically confirmed as much when she protested an anti-discriminatory ordinance protecting the rights of transgender people by recording a robocall against the ordiance. 

"I don't believe the citizens of Fayetteville would want males with past child predator convictions that claim they are female to have a legal right to enter private areas that are reserved for women and girls," Duggar said about the proposed bill protecting a transgender person's ability to use public restrooms without restrictions, according to the Fayetteville Flyer. "I doubt that Fayetteville parents would stand for a law that would endanger their daughters or allow them to be traumatized by a man joining them in their private space."

Although Duggar's ideas about the LGBTQ community aren't surprising, fans might find it hard to believe that Duggar was allegedly more open-minded in high school. "She was honestly one of the loveliest, sweetest people you could ever hope to meet," a woman who went to high school with Duggar told Radar Online. Her classmate was reportedly furious about the aforementioned robocall. "I don't understand what has happened to her heart," she said. "...When you [use] your words, actions, money and fame to further discriminate against an already marginalized group of people, you are a hateful bigot." 

Considering Michelle Duggar is one of the most religious people on reality television, one might assume she had a religious past. Shockingly enough, however, Duggar didn't grow up in a religious household and she didn't attend church until she was a teenager. 

"When I was 15, I got saved and committed my life to the Lord. It was the first time I'd ever heard what Jesus had done for me and I had a hunger to learn about the things of God," she told Love to Know. "A friend went to the same church Jim Bob went to. She invited me to her church." 

Michelle's religious conversion led her into the arms of an already very religious Jim Bob. She recalled one of their first hangouts. "He brought me home and we discussed the Bible for four hours. I remember when he left, I ... looked up and said, 'Father, I can't imagine anyone better than this that you have planned for me. He's such a Godly man.'"

Lust is a powerful thing. You never know when it's going to strike. Thankfully, Michelle Duggar has invented a pretty fool-proof way to nip lustful thoughts in the bud: using a code word. In the 2014 book Growing Up Duggar, the four Duggar daughters revealed that when they encountered "someone dressed inappropriately," their family used the code word "Nike" to help the men — which included their father Jim Bob Duggar — immediately stop thinking those kinds of thoughts about women. "That's a signal to the boys, and even to Dad, that they should nonchalantly drop their eyes and look down at their shoes as we walk past her," the Duggar girls wrote.

That's one way Michelle can reel them in. According to a source who spoke to People, the "Nike" code word is powerful enough that if Michelle utters it, it's always met with immediate action. "They say it, and all the boys look straight down to the floor every time. It's like an automatic military thing. Things like that blow my mind," the source claimed.