Reality

‘Counting On’: Jinger Duggar Raises Questions With Fans After Pulling out of Holiday Event Amid Backlash

Former Counting On star Jinger (Duggar) Vuolo and husband Jeremy Vuolo, who live in Los Angeles […]

Former Counting On star Jinger (Duggar) Vuolo and husband Jeremy Vuolo, who live in Los Angeles and far from the rest of the Duggar family, pulled out of an event scheduled for Dec. 8 because of “personal circumstances.” The decision came just after the Los Angeles doughnut company Fonuts abruptly ended a partnership with Vuolo after facing online backlash for working with a member of the Duggars. This led fans to wonder if there was a connection between the two partnerships ending.

On Wednesday, Fonuts founders Nancy Truman and Thom Furtado announced they were ending a brief partnership with Vuolo after they received messages from fans who brought up the controversies linked to the Duggar name.

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“Please accept our sincerest apology,” Truman and Furtado wrote. “We apologize for our recent poor choice of promotional partner. We were shocked and dismayed to learn about who we were associating with. we recognize we really made a mistake by not properly researching them.”

The two said they ended their partnership with Vuolo and the company that connected them with the former TLC star.

“We would like you all to know, we promise to be more diligent in the future and will only work with people who truly represent our core values of kindness, inclusivity and transparency,” the statement read. “We are so sorry, and we really hope you will forgive us for this mistake.”

A short time later, a Duggar fan took to Reddit to share a message they received from Eventbrite, confirming that the Vuolos will no longer attend the Rebecca Minkoff Mommy Pampering Event on Dec. 8 “due to personal circumstances.”

Vuolo made no mention of this on her Instagram page, but InTouch Weekly notes that she did promote Rebecca Minkoff on Instagram in a now-deleted post.

“As the holiday season is in full swing, I thought it’d be a great time to give back!” Vuolo wrote, alongside a photo of herself at one of the brand’s stores. “I’m excited to announce I’ve partnered with @rebeccamikoff to throw a mommy pampering event at their flagship location in Los Angeles.”

The timing of the two partnerships ending led some fans to speculate that there may have been a connection, or that Rebecca Minkoff decided to end their partnership with Vuolo for the same reasons as Fonut separately.

“RM was probably afraid of who was going to show up to see Jinger…..and perhaps even some protestors ??? Or when Fonuts dropped out Jinger expected to be paid by the store,” one person wrote on Reddit.

“Unlike the donut store, Rebecca Minkoff is a big enough company that they should have the resources to do their research and vet celebrities before partnering with them,” another added.

Photo credit: Getty Images