Did Jana Duggar and Stephen Wissmann’s PDA hint at (other) cult rule-breaking?
Fans think so. And, on the assumption that Jana violated Jim Bob’s restrictions before marriage, they’re happy for her.
To recap, within hours of Jana Duggar’s wedding date leaking, she married Stephen WIssmann.
None of this fits the pattern of a “normal” Duggar wedding. And there were hints that Jana and Stephen never abided by “courtship” rules.
On her YouTube channel, Jana Duggar walked viewers through as she harvested and ate her own Arkansas pineapples. (Image Credit: YouTube)
Jana Duggar and Stephen Wissmann are married!
On Thursday, August 15, Jana Duggar married Stephen Wissmann. They had a relatively low-key ceremony despite Jana’s reality TV fame and the presence of 500 guests.
Jessa Duggar, one of Jana’s innumerable sisters, was her maid of honor. Joy-Anna, jinger, Johannah, and Jordyn Duggar were other bridesmaids, and so was sister-in-law Abbie Duggar. (Jill was not part of the wedding party)
Marriage is all but mandatory withing the Duggar family and to the fundamentalist cult to which they belong. But so much of how this came to be is just too normal for the Duggar world.
On YouTube in the summer of 2024, Jana Duggar took followers on a tour of her Tiny House. (Image Credit: YouTube)
Jana is 34 years old, rather than being in her teens or very early 20s. She and Stephen had a real engagement (he proposed in June) instead of a courtship. And Jana and Stephen even (allegedly) dated a few years ago and broke up before reuniting early in 2024.
That is now how the cult raised Jana Duggar and her siblings to live. She’s living her life like what she is — a grown adult Millennial — rather than like her father’s property.
The wedding — and, in particular, the wedding reception — had a lot of Jana’s fans wondering if she and Stephen made other normal choices ahead of their nuptials.
Jana Duggar appears on one of her family’s TLC reality shows. (Image Credit: TLC)
What does Jana Duggar and Stephen Wissmann’s PDA mean?
Many of us have seen viral videos where a fundamentalist bride and groom clearly have no idea how to kiss at the altar, because they have no idea how to kiss.
That did not seem to be the case for Jana and Stephen. Even though Jana’s siblings had chaperones during their oh-so-brief courtships to ensure that they didn’t so much as “front-hug,” Jana and Stephen were doing just fine.
At one moment during the wedding, Stephen picked up his new wife. Touching the area of Jana’s butt didn’t seem awkward to fans and commenters, who wondered if this was not new territory for them.
This was about more than just courtship rules, however. Plenty of snarky posts on social media, including Twitter, noted that Jana was wearing a beautiful wedding gown. A wedding gown that bared her shoulders.
Michelle Duggar has explained that, in her cult’s twisted theology, a woman showing any amount of attractiveness is “defrauding” onlookers because they believe that it’s the woman’s fault if a man finds her attractive. And, of course, they believe that only a married couple may act upon these desires.
By that orthodoxy, Jana “defrauded” plenty of wedding guests. But the bigger question is, to be blunt, just how many rules did Jana and Stephen break before they tied the knot?
On her YouTube channel, Jana Duggar walked her fans through the installation of her above-ground pool. (Image Credit: YouTube)
Across social media, people cracked jokes about “front hugs,” “[sex worker] shoulders,” and more — even as they showered Jana with compliments.
However, we have to emphasize that this is all mere speculation. Well, the cut of the dress isn’t. And neither is Jana’s age, which makes her practically a geriatric bride by Duggar standards.
It is possible that, one day, Jana will open up about her (within the cult) “old maid” status and what led up to the wedding. For now, however, Jana is chalking the timing of her marriage up to her God and leaving it at that.
Jana Duggar cocks her head at the camera during an autumnal family camping trip. (Image Credit: YouTube)
The newlyweds are moving
In addition to metaphorically distancing herself from her family’s rules, Jana and Stephen are moving a considerable physical distance from the Duggar compound, as well.
Together, they will live in their new marital home in a new state. Their new 5-bedroom house (which cost only $275,000) is in Lincoln, Nebraska.
They’ll be close to the Wissmann family, whom Jana knows well. And they’ll be far from Jim Bob and Michelle and the sites of Josh Duggar’s crimes. That sounds like it’s for the best.