After 9 Years Together, This ‘Counting On’ Couple Reveals the Shocking Betrayal That Shook Her Strong Marriage

If it’s one thing we know about the Duggar family, it’s that they value lasting marriages. But in order to stay married for decades, it’s expected to endure some tough times no matter how much love is there. How a couple gets through the storm is up to them, if they choose to hold on. There have been plenty of scandals within the 19 Kids and Counting family, especially as the Duggar children have aged and begun their own families, fighting between their traditional religious upbringing and carving out their own paths and ideas about marriage and family. This has only become more evident as one couple from the Reality TV family, Jinger Duggar and her husband Jeremy Vuolo, recently opened up about a rough path in the early days of their marriage that could have ended everything.

Jeremy Vuolo Speaks About Betrayal in His Marriage to Jinger Duggar

Duggar and Vuolo sat down with fellow reality stars Lydia Plath and Zac Wyse in a recent episode of The Jinger and Jeremy Podcast. Though Counting On stars have been together for many years, approaching their ninth wedding anniversary, they took the chance to speak out about having to overcome obstacles early in their marriage. “The Lord has to teach every one of us how to walk alone with him,” Vuolo explained before bringing up a time several years earlier when he and his wife experienced what he calls “deep betrayal.”

Though Vuolo was vague about it, he went on to say, “Because you have relationships in your life that ground you, and when those shake or are removed, you feel like, ‘What am I doing?’” According to Vuolo, this was something they didn’t know if they could get past. “There are times in life where the two of you will go through something and one of you will have this steadiness and the other is really struggling, so you’re coming alongside,” Vuolo said. “This was a moment when we were both very deeply unsettled, where it was like, we both felt that shaking.”

The ‘Counting On’ Couple Received Help From a Marital Counselor

Fortunately, Dugger and Vuolo made it through this betrayal, proving how strong their marriage is, but to do so, they needed some extra help. So, they sought counseling from their pastor. Vuolo claims he will never forget the pastor’s advice, recounting it for those listening, saying, “He said, ‘Jeremy, I think the Lord’s teaching you how to walk alone.’ And not alone like me away from her or us from the Lord, but the two of us having to be dependent upon him.”

As for why the deep betrayal happened, Vuolo said it was because they lacked a foundation. “This is the first time we’re even talking about it,” he revealed. “Now it’s eight years on, we’re in Los Angeles, we have friends who are family to us, we have a deep community that we’re invested in, involved in. We have everything we didn’t have in that moment. And yet, those years were necessary.”

What Was the Betrayal ‘Counting On’s Jeremy Vuolo Referenced?

Many wonder if the couple dealt with infidelity. Without divulging details, Vuolo said it had something to do with external factors, and seemingly the hardships of blending lives. “I’ll say, the betrayal wasn’t even family. And I know a lot of people listening might try to figure [it] out,” he said. Vuolo didn’t give names, but he explained, “It was people in my life that she had come into, and people I had been really like excited for her to meet and engage with, and then it was it was really difficult.”

The couple now says the betrayal is one of the biggest blessings in their marriage. “The Lord knew exactly what we needed in that moment,” Duggar said. “And so just that trust in Him regardless of the circumstance when we can’t see ahead, it’s just trusting in faith.” Vuolo added to her statement that “the greatest lessons we’ve ever learned” came from that experience. Like every married couple, Duggar and Vuolo faced challenges, but they came through them together.