Jinger Duggar and Jeremy Vuolo recount their romance — from courtship to kids — in their book, The Hope We Hold, and like any good love story, theirs came with plenty of twists and turns.
The twosome went public with their relationship in December 2015 and got engaged after seven months of courting. In November 2016, they exchanged vows in Arkansas during a ceremony that included the 19 Kids and Counting alum’s first kiss.
“Jeremy and I had talked about it quite a bit leading up to our wedding day. You sort of have to when your first kiss is going to be in front of a thousand people,” Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar’s sixth child recalled in the new book, out Tuesday, May 4. “‘Tilt your head to the right,’ he’d told me. ‘Just follow my lead.’ I should have felt nervous as we leaned into one another, but as our lips met for the first time, any jitters I might have had disappeared.”
Before tying the knot, however, the couple faced some pushback from Jinger’s parents. In particular, Jim Bob had concerns about the former pro soccer player’s commitment to his faith, despite having left the MLS behind to pursue life as a pastor.
“I did not see that coming,” the Pennsylvania native wrote. “If anything was a stumbling block, I’d thought it would be my past. I drank and partied in college. I’d been arrested. I could understand parents looking at those issues as red flags. It had never occurred to me that my theology would be the issue.”
Jinger’s father took extreme precautions when it came to giving the Hartwick College alum permission to date his daughter. Before their book hit shelves, Jinger and her husband reflected on the “intense” questionnaire Jim Bob doled out — which was 50 pages long.
“I was actually pretty eager to fill it out and say, ‘OK, look, this is a good opportunity for them to get to know me,’” the retired New York Red Bulls star told Us Weekly exclusively in April. “It’s tough for Mr. Duggar, man. He’s got all these girls [and] all these guys hanging around. I think if I had all those girls I’d probably come up with a document too.”
Eventually, the pair got their happily ever after. Nearly two years after their wedding, they welcomed daughter Felicity Nicole Vuolo in July 2018. While they adored their little girl, the couple were eager to give Felicity a sibling. Jinger and Jeremy aimed to welcome their kids “two years apart,” and their wish came true when daughter Evangeline Jo Vuolo arrived in November 2020. However, the pair experienced hardship one year prior when Jinger suffered a miscarriage.
“I talked to [my sister] Joy a lot in that time,” the TLC star told Us exclusively in June 2020. “We grew closer. We were already close, but that relationship even deepened all the more having been through the same thing. [It] was very difficult, but I was grateful for Joy to be able to talk to her. [My sister-in-law] Lauren also just shared such sweet words with me.”
Keep scrolling to see the 13 biggest revelations from Jinger and Jeremy’s memoir: