Jason Duggar is going public with his new romance! The Counting On alum, 24, took to Instagram on May 29 to reveal the mystery woman he appears to be courting, posting photos of their romantic beach date that obscured her face as he twirled and hugged her while looking out at the ocean.
Captioned simply with a white heart, Duggar kept his followers guessing when it came to the identity of his lady friend, and guess they did. Followers of the 19 Kids and Counting alum were quick to speculate that the woman was a member of the Bates family, whose reality series Bringing Up Bates, ran for 10 seasons on Up TV. The show featured a family much like the Duggars, following the lives of Gil and Kelly Bates and their 19 children.
Videos by PopCulture.com
The Bates family was brought into the conversation not only due to their close relationship with the Duggars but also because several members of the family, including Esther and Whitney Bates, left a heart-eyed emoji on Duggar’s photos. “The fact that Bates sisters are commenting with [heart] eyes makes me think it’s a Bates sister,” one commenter theorized.
Others thought the woman looked like 18-year-old Addallee Bates, with one person commenting, “Is this a Bates daughter? Beautiful photos,” and another adding, “This would be pretty Epic if it’s Addallee. I hate to guess wrong, but maybe y’all want people to guess? lol. Congrats though!”
Other commenters thought Duggar might be courting Emma or Claire Langdon, who have also been close friends with the family for years. Still others commented on the couple being able to give frontal hugs, as the Duggar family has typically forbidden that kind of close contact during the courtship process. There is precedent for Duggar sons to break those rules, however.
Prior to John David Duggar and Abbie Burnett’s wedding in 2018, the TLC personality shared on Counting On that they had decided to make their own physical boundaries before marriage. “[Our] courtship standards have been slightly different than some of my siblings,” the Duggar brother, now 34, explained on the show at the time. “We all get to make our decisions on what our standards are. We chose to be able to have some contact, versus no contact. So I’ll put my arm around her, give her a hug. We felt that was appropriate in where we are at this stage of life. We are about ten years older than most of my siblings when they started courtship, so it feels like we’re a little further down the road in terms of maturity in some areas.”
