Joy-Anna Duggar’s Husband Reveals Big Conflict Behind the Scenes of TLC’s ‘Counting On’

Joy-Anna Duggar’s husband Austin is opening up about the backlash he says he received from TLC production regarding not wanting their son’s birth filmed for the show. While the Duggar family were used to reality television camera capturing their every move, it wasn’t something Austin had an easy time adjusting to.

He took a stand against the private moment while filming Counting On. In the latest episode of The Jinger & Jeremy Podcast, Austin remembered saying no to filming the birth of his first child, son Gideon, now 6. The pair are also parents to Evelyn, 4, and Gunner, 1.

“I don’t remember us having really big, like, ‘Oh, no, y’all can’t show this or whatever,’ [but] I think we did push back about having Gideon,” he told hosts Jinger Duggar Vuolo and Jeremy Vuolo. “I didn’t want any film crew there. I took a lot of heat for that.”

His decision went against what Joy-Anna’s sisters had previously done. “That’s something which Jessa and Jill, I believe, had already had Spurgeon and Israel [on the show], so I should have thought about it,” he remembered. “It’s not something that, as a single guy, crossed my mind like, ‘One day, I’m going to have to make the decision if I’m going to have the network with cameras in our face,’” There’s a lot you just don’t know how [to handle].”

The pair wed in 2017. Despite his love for his wife, he didn’t share the same affinity for reality TV. “I didn’t really trust the producers or the camera guys — not that the camera guys really had anything to do with the production,” he shared. “I remember the producer telling me, ‘It used to be so hard getting stuff out of you and you always seemed like we were trying to entrap you or you always would think a long time about your answers and we just wanted something spontaneous.’”