Joy-Anna Duggar Reflects on Marrying Young and Her Four-Year Age Gap With Austin Forsyth

Joy-Anna Duggar is looking back on the early days of her relationship with Austin Forsyth and opening up about what it was like to marry young, including the four-year age difference that once seemed especially significant because of how young they both were.

The 28-year-old former 19 Kids and Counting and Counting On star discussed her relationship with Forsyth, 32, during an appearance on her sister Jinger Duggar’s Jinger & Jeremy Podcast on Wednesday, Aug. 19.

 

Joy-Anna revealed that she and Austin had actually known each other since childhood. Their families first crossed paths when Joy-Anna was around 4 and Austin was 8, after his family moved from Texas.

Although they met when they were children, they did not remain closely connected for years. According to Joy-Anna, their families attended different churches for a period of time, and they rarely saw each other until Austin became old enough to drive and began participating in activities with the boys, including football and broom ball.

By the time Joy-Anna was 14 and Austin was 18, she already had strong feelings for him.

“I was crushing hard,” she recalled while talking about her future husband.

Jinger, who is 32, pointed out that although she and her own husband, Jeremy Vuolo, 38, have a larger age difference, Joy-Anna and Austin’s four-year gap can seem more noticeable because of how young they were when their relationship developed and when they married.

 

Joy-Anna and Austin began dating shortly before she turned 18. They married in May 2017, when Joy-Anna was 19 and Austin was 23.

Looking back, Joy-Anna said she had been certain about the relationship from the beginning.

“I would have married him from day one,” she said.

At the time, she admitted, she was largely focused on a simple vision of their future together. She imagined the two of them living happily ever after in a farmhouse and did not spend much time thinking about the challenges that might come after marriage.

“I didn’t think past ‘we’re going to have a farmhouse and we’re going to live happily ever after,’ ” Joy-Anna explained.

She said she believed Austin was the person she was meant to marry and assumed everything would naturally work out. But adulthood and marriage eventually brought experiences she had not anticipated.

“There was a lot that surprised me,” she acknowledged.

Nearly a decade after their wedding, Joy-Anna and Austin have built a family of their own. They are now parents to three children: Gideon, 8, Evelyn, 5, and Gunner, 3.

Their journey has also included profound heartbreak. In 2019, Joy-Anna experienced a pregnancy loss at 20 weeks when her daughter, Annabell, was stillborn. She has previously spoken publicly about the emotional impact of that loss and the difficult period that followed.

More recently, Joy-Anna has also addressed speculation about whether she and Austin plan to have another child. Pregnancy rumors have repeatedly circulated online, prompting the couple to clarify that they were not expecting a fourth baby.

During another appearance on Jinger and Jeremy’s podcast in February, Jeremy directly asked Joy-Anna about the rumors.

“Yes,” Joy-Anna replied when asked whether people were saying she was pregnant, before Jinger jokingly responded, “That’s so Duggar of them!”

Joy-Anna’s latest conversation offers another glimpse into a relationship that began when the couple were young and has continued through marriage, parenthood and major personal challenges.

While she acknowledges that she entered marriage with an idealistic view of what life with Austin would look like, Joy-Anna now appears to be reflecting on those early expectations with the perspective that comes from years of experience.

For her, the four-year age difference that once seemed notable is now simply one part of the story of how she and Austin grew from childhood acquaintances into spouses and parents of three.