For Jeremy Vuolo, rewatching his first appearance on Counting On with wife Jinger Duggar was fairly awkward.
“First of all, you have gotten more and more beautiful every single day,” Jeremy, 37, told his spouse on their “Jinger and Jeremy” podcast on Wednesday, August 27. “You are aging like fine wine. I am aging like milk!”
The couple looked back on Jeremy’s debut on the 19 Kids and Counting spinoff, which aired for 11 seasons on TLC from December 2015 to September 2020. Jeremy first appeared in a 2016 episode before he was even dating Jinger.
“If you look at me then, and go, full head of hair, everything is dark, beard is dark,” he pointed out. “Jinger, I’ve [now] got bags under my eyes, I’ve got a white beard.”
When Jinger, 31, assured her husband that she too had “bags under [her] eyes,” Jeremy credited her for “holding it beautifully.”
“You have just gotten more and more gorgeous every day that passes by,” he insisted.
Jinger confessed that she remembered very little about Jeremy’s first appearance on Counting On, where he was introduced as a friend of her brothers at a baby shower for Jessa Duggar. Jessa was ultimately responsible for setting up Jeremy and Jinger.
Jeremy got the scoop from his wife on what she knew about him before they officially met on camera at the baby shower.
“I had heard a lot about you at that point,” Jinger told her husband. “I remember them saying, ‘There’s this pastor….’ You weren’t ordained at that point but you were in a leadership position so you were shepherding a church … [Jessa] said, ‘He wears those sweaters you like.’ I remember that!”
Jeremy Vuolo and Jinger Duggar on “Jinger & Jeremy” podcast. Courtesy YouTube / Courtesy “Jinger & Jeremy”
Jinger explained that Jessa was integral in introducing her to Jeremy, though she was instantly interested because her future husband “knew the word of God really well.”
“I think [Jessa] had a conversation with me because, at that point, there were other people around who were interested in me,” she remembered. “It was kind of an interesting season, right? I had this in my mind, like, ‘OK, he might be interested’ but there was somebody else who was showing interest in me at that time.”
Jeremy interjected that he “didn’t like that guy,” with Jinger chuckling as she agreed. Jinger confirmed that this other potential suitor went through her father, Jim Bob Duggar, to ask for permission to date her.
As she looked back on that period in her life, Jinger admitted to feeling lots of “turmoil” before finally deciding to pursue a relationship with Jeremy.
“I was more interested in, just, who you were,” she told Jeremy.
Telling her story. Jinger Duggar grew up in the spotlight, but there was still plenty TLC fans didn’t know about her life — until now. The 19 Kids and Counting alum, 29, released her book Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith from Fear on Tuesday, January 31. Her memoir unpacks her ultra-conservative Christian […]
Everything worked out in the end, as Jeremy and Jinger tied the knot at the Cathedral of the Ozarks in Siloam Springs, Arkansas, in front of 1,000 guests in November 2016. The couple have since welcomed three children: Felicity, 6, Evangeline, 4, and Finn, 4 months.
Jeremy previously acknowledged that it was difficult for him to follow the Duggar family’s rules of courting. The deeply religious Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar required their children to court under the guidelines of the Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP), which enforced strict guidelines about dating and women’s attire.
“It was fine because obviously, I’m looking at my wife [and] going, ‘She’s worth it,’” he said. “But it took a lot of getting used to.”
The couple welcomed their youngest son, Finnegan Charles, in March.
“We both just loved that name [Finnegan],” she explained via their YouTube channel. “I think the name Finnegan was one that Jeremy came up with and once he mentioned it, I was like, ‘Oh, I love that name.’ It’s so strong.”
Old episodes of Counting On are available to stream for free on Tubi and The Roku Channel.
