Joy-Anna Duggar and Austin Broke Major Courtship Rule When They Were Dating
This week's airing of "Counting On" proved to be an explosive one. The episode, which was filmed ahead of their recent wedding, revealed that Joy-Anna Duggar and her husband Austin Forsyth might have made a courting blunder back when they were still dating.
The events featured in each episode of "Counting On" usually happen long before they air. Sometimes, it is shot months or a year before the events actually get shown on television. That explains why although Joy-Anna and Austin are already a married couple in real life, they are still in their dating stage on the show.
In this week's episode, the two were not yet married and should therefore abide by the Duggar Family's strict rules when it comes to courtship. However, there was one instance in the episode when they apparently broke a major courtship rule.
It all happened when Joy-Anna and Austin were working together to renovate a home, which is something the latter does for a living. He also repairs things to earn some money. While the two were busy working, Austin suddenly touched his girlfriend's hand. Although it remains unknown whether he did it on purpose, that does not matter. For the Duggars, touching one's hand during the courtship stage is scandalous enough and is therefore a big no-no.
The Duggars have rules when it comes to courtship, and this applies both to the members of the family who date and to those they are seeing. Since Austin and Joy-Anna were still not married when the hand-touching incident happened, they broke the Duggars' archaic rule.
According to reports, the two have been dating each other for two weeks when that happened. During the episode, Austin and Joy-Anna admitted that while they were doing the home renovation, they could not help but get distracted by each other along the way.
Joy-Anna and Austin are already married now, and Joy-Anna admitted that she sees herself renovating more houses with her husband in the future.
"Counting On" airs Mondays at 9 p.m. EDT on TLC.