The Untold Truth Of Abbie Duggar

In Christian fundamentalist circles, the Duggars — an Arkansas family famous for their 19 children, television presence, and numerous scandals — are practically royalty. The Duggars are perhaps the most famous family associated with the Quiverfull movement, which Gawker describes as a Christian movement which seeks to "out-reproduce" nonbelievers and "sees the quantity of children they put out into the world as a maternal mission statement." While the ethics of giving a radical religious movement such a public platform are definitely debatable, it's no secret that the Duggar family makes for entertaining — and, at times, grotesque, but always entertaining — television.

Abbie Duggar (née Burnett) is one of the most intriguing spouses to enter the Duggar family. In a short time, her dry humor, no-nonsense delivery, and kind disposition won the hearts of even the staunchest Duggar anti-fans. On the DuggarsSnark subreddit, which exists to "snark" on the Duggar family and other fundamentalists, there are entire discussions praising Abbie as the "favorite" Duggar spouse.

Abbie's a bit of an enigma. Her social media accounts are shared with John David, and there isn't much about her online. So who is Abbie Duggar, and how did she join the Duggar family? Read on to find out more about the girl behind the curly hair and cardigans.

When the Burnett family blog, 10Burnetts, was still actively updated, Abbie Duggar (née Burnett) was one of the most frequent post authors. In her posts, she often shared photos of shenanigans with her siblings. One post about a road trip to Washington, D.C., portrayed the Burnett children playing basketball, sightseeing, and hanging out in a packed car — from the photos, it seems that the Burnett siblings get along better than your average group of brothers and sisters.

Abbie's brother, John-Clay Burnett, has shared photos of his siblings on Facebook, including group photos of sibling dinners and pics where he teases his brothers for being "crazy kids." Abbie, like the rest of her siblings, was homeschooled, which meant that her brothers and sisters were her friends and classmates as well as her family. Clearly, that kind of time spent together makes for a pretty strong bond, even well into adulthood.

It was at a speaking event that John David Duggar and Abbie Burnett started their relationship. According to The Duggar Family Fan Blog, Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar were speaking at an event attended by Abbie and her family at Ada First Baptist Church — possibly the event on May 6, 2018, advertised by the church on Facebook. The Duggar Family Fan Blog writes that the couple "started texting, became boyfriend and girlfriend, and announced their courtship to the Duggars...all within two weeks of meeting each other." The courtship lasted less than two months before the pair were engaged — a whirlwind romance by most standards, but not surprising given that most of the Duggar kids were engaged after just a few months of dating.

On the official Duggar website, Abbie and John David describe themselves as having fallen in "love at first sight" after meeting at the speaking event. The couple decided to hold their 2018 wedding at Ada First Baptist Church instead of tying the knot in Arkansas, like some of the other Duggar siblings (via Us Weekly).

As we've learned through binge-watching TLC, the Duggar kids are, supposedly, obsessed with the violin — seriously, most of them can saw out a tune, even if it's not the most angelic sound in the world, and some of them are actually quite accomplished musicians. It's not exactly clear why evangelical Christian fundamentalists love the Suzuki Method, but the Burnett family blog suggests that the Burnett kids are also adept fiddlers. One post claims that Abbie Duggar (née Burnett) performed pieces on her violin at the Oklahoma State Capitol building in Oklahoma City, while another photo shows her holding a ukulele next to her violin-wielding sisters.

Abbie's mother, Cheryl Burnett, describes Abbie on the family blog as having "mastered the ukulele and violin," although Abbie's personal social media doesn't have much music featured on it nowadays. But it's no surprise that she may have dropped her instruments for the time being. As anyone who played the clarinet in high school marching band can tell you, sometimes a teenage passion for an instrument doesn't carry through for the rest of your life.

When you grow up in families as large as the Burnett and Duggar groups are, you tend to learn about the virtues of frugality pretty early on. Hallmarks of a Duggar life include couponing, buying in bulk, cooking at home, and generally avoiding the salon — which Abbie and John David accomplish by playing cosmetologist for each other.

In February 2019, Abbie shared via Instagram that she was learning to cut John David's hair, calling her husband a "brave soul" for sitting still beneath the shears while sister-in-law Jessa Seewald (née Duggar) looked on. John David reciprocated the favor, albeit not by cutting Abbie's curly locks. Instead, he learned how to paint his wife's nails by watching a technician at Abbie's salon, and gave her an on-screen manicure in 2019. No word on whether or not the couple still avoids beauty professionals, but we're sure those skills came in handy during quarantine.

On January 7, 2020, Abbie Duggar gave birth to her first child with John David Duggar, Grace. While most of the Duggar births are televised, since that's half the point of the show, Abbie and John David opted to keep TLC's cameras out of their delivery room, instead snapping a couple of candid pics that they later posted to their shared Instagram.

The couple didn't state why they booted cameras from the delivery room, but in doing so, they bucked a Duggar tradition. Cameras were present for the deliveries of most of the other Duggar births, including the "agony" of the hours-long labor experienced by sister-in-law Lauren Duggar (via Daily Mail). Given Abbie's medically intense pregnancy and seemingly eternal labor — she was sent home from the hospital to labor longer at home before returning for the birth — it makes sense that she wouldn't want primetime viewers privy to the intense and intimate experience of her child's birth.

Although the Duggars are arguably the most famous of the large, publicly evangelical families associated with the Institute in Basic Life Principles, the Burnett family are also heavily involved with the organization. At one point, they even had a testimony on the IBLP website. It makes sense, then, that the IBLP would proudly display Abbie Burnett on their website once she and John David Duggar announced their engagement (via InTouch).

Abbie doesn't seem to post about the IBLP or openly talk about the organization's beliefs, but it could be assumed that she plans on raising her children with the same doctrine she grew up with — faith tenets including, "Dating is forbidden," women are inherently subservient to men, almost all modern music is inappropriate, and uncircumcised men are morally impure (via Chicago). However, more and more former IBLP believers are finding the strength to leave the organization while maintaining their Christian faith.

Many of the older Duggar children, including Jessa, Jinger, and Joy-Anna, seem to have more distant relationships with their spouses than Abbie does with John David. On the subreddit DuggarsSnark (a forum on Reddit for people to "snark" on the Duggars, their spouses, and other religious fundamentalists) viewers have taken notice of John David's unusual affection towards Abbie. In the words of one Reddit poster: "Why are they so weird? Is it because they actually genuinely like each other?" Posters came to the consensus that both halves of the couple possess the general lovely weirdness of "band and art kids," and that it's clear they're thrilled to have found each other.

Redditors pointed to little moments as proof of John David and Abbie's compatibility — like a scene in Season 11, Episode 1 of "Counting On," when Abbie remarked that she felt "like an alien sometimes," which got a laugh from John David. Or Season 11, Episode 4, when Abbie and John David happily bit into a snack of crickets, which horrified the rest of the Duggars. As the old maids of their families (by IBLP standards, of course), Abbie and John David must be thrilled to have found each other.