InstagramDoes Anna Duggar still have the utmost faith in her husband now that he's admitted to being unfaithful?
While it was bad enough when the world found out what Anna apparently already knew, that her husband, Josh Duggar, had molested two of his younger sisters when he was around 14, now he's been revealed to be your average, lame, garden-variety cheater as well.
Prompted by Gawker publishing an account of purported records showing an Ashley Madison account in his name, the 27-year-old father of four admitted Thursday to being unfaithful to his wife of nearly seven years.
"I have been the biggest hypocrite ever. While espousing faith and family values, I have secretly over the last several years been viewing pornography on the internet and this became a secret addiction and I became unfaithful to my wife," began a statement posted on the Duggar family's website that was later edited to remove the part about the pornography and a later mention of the molestation scandal that ultimately led to the cancellation of 19 Kids and Counting.
But unlike when the admitted "actions that happened when [Josh] was 14-15 years old" were uncovered, Anna has not immediately rushed to her husband's defense in a show of supportive solidarity.
So does that mean there's finally trouble in paradise?
Did we say paradise? Sorry, we meant this hell on earth.
Though people on social media who don't know the family (and some who, before this scandalous summer, probably couldn't pick a Duggar out of a lineup) are clamoring for Anna to leave Josh, it is really hard to believe that's going to happen. Or at least happen anytime soon enough to comfort the masses crying out for some sort of fallout they can identify with.
Because continued prayer and reflection really didn't do it for anybody the first time around.
If at the end of the day (and by end of the day we mean five years from now), Anna and Josh remain married, she certainly wouldn't be breaking any mold by staying with a cheating spouse. Even a serial-cheater spouse. Some still have a bone to pick to this day with Hillary Clinton for sticking with Bill, so Anna will be on the D-level of the list of well-known women who stayed after their husband strayed.
But regardless of the gamut of feelings that Anna is presumably running right about now—as anger, sadness, bewilderment, anger, anxiety, disillusionment, disappointment and did we mention anger course through her veins—the mother of four young children may not even see divorce as a possibility (as so many of us who do not abide by the tenets of her faith might automatically think about in such a situation).
Because divorcing Josh wouldn't just be about breaking up their marriage, no matter how much breaking he did first. Going by the more recently married Duggar siblings' approach to tying the knot, it would also be about breaking the spiritual contract she and Josh entered into at the altar. And in that case, we'd be a lot more upset about the prospect of disappointing God than we would some cheating a-hole.
Though it's not publicly known if Josh and Anna did this (the media weren't all over the Duggars as much in 2008), Josh's sister Jill entered into a covenant marriage with husband Derick Dillard (as did sister Jessa and hubby Ben Seewald) when they swapped vows, a type of union that is subjected to stricter standards when it comes to the possibility of ending it.
However, adultery is one of the deal-breakers.
According to John Brown University's Center for Healthy Relationships, a husband and wife in a covenant marriage (which is only legal in Arkansas, Arizona and Louisiana) agree to seek counseling before ever considering a divorce, and they can only seek a divorce if a spouse committed adultery; committed a felony or "infamous crime"; or physically or sexually abused the other spouse or a child. If a couple has separated regardless, a divorce will be granted only after two years of living apart, or two and a half years if they have minor children.
When contacted for comment and asked if there had been any change at all in Josh and Anna's marital status, or if they were currently together or in different places, an attorney for the Duggars referred us again to the statement posted on the family's website.
A source told People today, meanwhile, that "Anna will not leave him. As with her in-laws, she is turning more to her faith than ever. She and Josh are probably praying around the clock right now, I would assume." Moreover, the source said, "Maybe not publicly, ever, but privately, there will be some suggestion of whether or not she should have been more aware of the pressures Josh was under, of the issues he was facing, and how she could have better counseled him or helped him."
And that's where the situation comes full circle and arrives back at untenable.
With or without Josh, Anna most likely is praying and dutifully seeking guidance—but it appears that she's not the only one. There are a lot of well-wishers praying for her, and for a very different outcome than the one we're all expecting.