Amy Duggar Says Cousin Relationships Were ‘Surface Level’ Growing Up

Amy King (née Duggar) is opening up about what it was really like to grow up as a cousin of the Duggar siblings.

“We would spend so much time together. We had tons of trips, all the stuff, but it was more surface-level. It wasn’t really heartfelt,” Amy, 39, said during her Wednesday, December 10, appearance on Matt and Abby Howard’s “Unplanned” podcast.

Amy continued, “We never really talked about the things we were struggling with or what God was doing in our life or whatever it would be. It just wasn’t ever talked about. It was more of just like what [the Duggar family’s show 19 Kids and Counting] was doing and just how’s the weather and ‘I like your skirt’ and that kind of stuff.”

Amy said that she believed this may have been a result of her cousins following the teachings of the Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP), which her own family did not follow. (The IBLP is a nondenominational Christian fundamentalist organization that was established by former leader Bill Gothard in 1961. The ministry follows several strict rules, including dressing modestly, courting under supervision, abstaining from alcohol consumption and more.)

“They teach, like, if you’re not in that circle, they keep you at arm’s reach,” Amy’s husband, Dillon King, claimed on the podcast.

Amy is the only child of Terry Jordan and Deanna Duggar, the latter of whom is Jim Bob Duggar’s sister. Jim Bob, 60, and wife Michelle Duggar share kids Josh, 37, twins John-David and Jana, 35, Jill, 33, Jessa, 32, Jinger, 31, Joseph, 30, Josiah, 28, Joy-Anna, 27, twins Jedidiah and Jeremiah, 26, Jason, 25, James, 23, Justin, 22, Jackson, 20, Johannah, 19, Jennifer, 17, Jordyn-Grace, 16, and Josie, 15.

Keep scrolling to see what else Amy said about her relationship with her cousins:

Amy Duggar Says She Was Sometimes Asked to Wear Skirts to Her Cousins’ House

Amy claimed that although she often wore jeans to her cousins’ house, she was sometimes asked to wear skirts in order to comply with their modesty standards.

“I’ve tried on pantaloons before. I’ve tried on one of their swimsuits,” she said. “Just to, like, appease my family and to show that I do respect their values and their rules.”

Amy Duggar Shares Husband Dillon King’s Awkward 1st Encounter With Her Family

Amy also recalled Dillon’s first encounter with her cousins and how awkward it was because he didn’t know about the family’s rules.

“We were at this, like, rock and bowl place. It was like glow bowling. … All my cousins were bowling, and they don’t dance, right? They do not,” Amy explained, referring to another IBLP rule. “So, when he first met them, he walked in, and there was some music playing, whatever, and … he walked in and he was like, dancing and just cracking up.”

Amy claimed that her family looked at Dillon and slowly turned away from him. Dillon, meanwhile, had no idea what he had done wrong.

“I was ignorant. I had no idea,” Dillon joked.

Amy Duggar Gushes About ‘Cousinship’ With Jill Duggar

Over the years, Amy has grown closer to Jill, with whom she starred in season 1 of Prime Video’s Shiny Happy People docuseries about the Duggar family’s controversies.

Related: Inside Amy Duggar’s Estranged Relationship With Her Family and Cousins

Amy Duggar earned a reputation as the rebellious cousin throughout her extended family’s tenure on 19 Kids and Counting and Counting On. Amy is the only child of Terry Jordan and Deanna Duggar, whose brother, Jim Bob Duggar, shares 19 children with wife Michelle Duggar. When the former politician and Michelle’s first reality series debuted […]

“Cousinship is so much fun. Like, we can joke around and laugh and we have inside jokes,” Amy said of what she’s learned from her relationship with Jill. “And just to know that, like, our [5-year-old son Daxton] is safe in their presence and that their [sons Israel, 9, Samuel, 7, and Frederick, 2] have spent the night with us. And like, we take care of them and love them and know what they like and the hobbies they have and all of that. It’s such a different way of living compared to really what we had growing up.”

Amy added that it was like having a “true family.”

Amy Duggar Reveals the Last Time She Saw Her Family

Amy shared that she has not seen most of her cousins in “years.”

“I realized I needed to have boundaries set with my family and the situation because of the lies and things that were told. Um, and it’s nothing against my cousins,” she said. “It’s just, it’s one of those things that like, I don’t want to ride a fence, you know? Like, I’m not [someone] that’s going to [be like], ‘Oh, I love you and them and everything’s great,’ ’cause it’s not.”

Amy previously told Us Weekly exclusively that she last spoke to Jim Bob “right before” Josh went on trial for his 2021 arrest for receiving and possessing child pornography. The eldest son of Jim Bob and Michelle, 59, was ultimately sentenced to more than 12 years in prison.