’19 Kids and Counting’ Alum Details ‘Deep Betrayal’ During Marriage

Jinger Duggar Vuolo and Jeremy Vuolo are looking back on a difficult time in their marriage marked by “deep betrayal.”

The 19 Kids and Counting alum discussed the challenging period in their life and how it caused them to turn to their faith during Wednesday’s episode of the Jinger & Jeremy Podcast.

“There was a time in our life, very early on in our marriage, where we experienced some… I describe it as deep betrayal,” said Jeremy, 37, who tied the knot with Jinger, 31, in 2016. “You have relationships in your life that ground you, and when those shake or are removed, you feel like, ‘What am I doing?’”

“This was a moment when we were both very deeply unsettled,” he continued. “We both felt that shaking.”

Jeremy didn’t go into detail about the betrayal he and Jinger experienced, but said he received guidance from his pastor that stuck with him. “He said, ‘Jeremy, I think the Lord’s teaching you how to walk alone,’” he recalled. “And not alone like me away from her or us from the Lord, but the two of us having to be dependent upon him.”

Now, eight years later, the couple and their three children — Felicity, 6 and Evangeline, 4, and Finnegan, 4 months — are in a better place than ever.

“It’s eight years on,” Jeremy said. “We’re in Los Angeles. We have friends who are family to us. We have a deep community that we’re invested and involved in. We have everything we didn’t have in that moment, and yet, those years were necessary.”

Jinger chimed in that the difficult times strengthened her bond with her husband early on in their marriage. “For us as newlyweds, it was huge because we were able to draw closer to each other,” she explained. “We felt so close throughout our relationship [and] early marriage, but that was a deepening and a whole different level when you walk through pain and hardship together.”