Call it a family affair. After Josh Duggar's recent cheating scandal and subsequent stint in rehab, his wife, Anna Duggar, made her first appearance this past Saturday, Sept. 6, attending Amy Duggar's wedding to Dillon King in Bentonville, Ark.
The mother of four, 27, was photographed for the first time since her husband's infidelity confession, wearing a conservative blue T-shirt, khaki pencil skirt, and earrings. During the nuptials, Anna cradled her 2-year-old son Marcus in her arms and stood around her father-in-law, Jim Bob Duggar.
The bride, meanwhile, told Us Weekly last week that she was legally changing her name to King following their nuptials. “I’m so excited to take his last name, which I heard is trending [on Twitter] right now, that I’m ready to change my last name, which is the funniest thing, but I mean it’s true,” she told Us. “I think that’s going to be a really awesome feeling.”
Noticeably absent from Amy's nuptials on Saturday was Anna's beleaguered husband, Josh, who is currently completing his stint in a long-term treatment center at the Reformers Unanimous center in Rockford, Ill., after his cheating confession last month. On his family's website, Josh acknowledged his transgressions by calling himself "the biggest hypocrite ever" and admitting that he had "secretly over the last several years been viewing pornography on the internet and this became a secret addiction and I became unfaithful to my wife."
Following the confession, Duggar family critics lashed against the reality TV family, including one Georgia mom, whose letter about Anna Duggar went completely viral.
"I wish more people would talk about Anna," the Atlanta woman, Jessica Kirkland, wrote on Facebook. "Let me tell you: Anna Duggar is in the worst position she could possibly be in right now. Anna Duggar was crippled by her parents by receiving no education, having no work experience (or life experience, for that matter) and then was shackled to this loser because his family was famous in their religious circle. Anna Duggar was taught that her sole purpose in life, the most meaningful thing she could do, was to be chaste and proper, a devout wife, and a mother."
One of Anna's brothers, Daniel Keller, echoed Kirkland's sentiments last month, when he shared that Anna refused his help after Josh's second scandal of 2015 broke last month.
"I have been thinking of her and sick to my stomach for her for last few days," Keller wrote on Aug. 23, in the comments section of Jessa Duggar's Facebook page. "I have told her I would pay for her to move out here w me and pay for her kidz. I don't think josh will see that this is a big deal and be truly broken till that happens. I bet my life on the fact that josh has not [come] to true brokenness yet."
Other family members and in-laws to have publicly turned their backs on Josh include Michael Seewald, his son Ben Seewald and wife Jessa Duggar.
Like her husband, Anna has currently been receiving counseling amid the controversy. "In the meantime, we will be offering our love, care and devoted support to Anna and our grandchildren as she also receives counsel and help for her own heart and future," Josh's parents, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, wrote on their family's blog last month. "During this time we continue to look to God—He is our rock and comfort. We ask for your continued prayers for our entire family."
Anna and Josh share four kids, Mackynzie, 5, Michael, 4, Marcus, 2, and Meredith, 2 months.
