Jessa Duggar is here to defend her mother.
Yes, folks. THAT mother.
Earlier this month, the Counting On alum honored Michelle Duggar by writing the following on Facebook:
Feeling blessed beyond measure this Mother’s Day! So thankful for the beautiful examples of motherhood in my own mother and mother-in-law.
It didn’t take long after Jessa shared these words for a handful of users to stop, read them and wonder: WTF?!?
“Didn’t your mom harbor a child molester?” one person wrote, for example. “Not exactly a shining example.”
This is a pointed reference to Josh Duggar, who molested his sisters when he was a teenager (and whose parents helped to cover up the crime) and who is now behind federal bars after being convicted of child pornography possession.
Another individual, meanwhile, labeled Michelle Duggar as a “baby machine, not a mother,” citing the many kids to whom she gave birth (19!!!!) and the clear belief held by Jim Bob Duggar that women are meant to procreate and… that’s about it.
Jessa, who welcomed her fifth child in December, eventually jumped in after yet another critic said her mother was “terrible,” replying to this remark as follows:
“I beg to differ. She is the godliest woman I know. I’ve never met a more patient, gentle or genuinely loving human being.”
Jessa also held Michelle up as a role model.
She said she can only pray that she’s anywhere near the kind of parent that her mom has been to her and her siblings throughout the years.
“I love her more than any other woman I know and I only hope I can be half the mother to my own kids as she was to me,” Jessa wrote online this week.
She is entitled to this opinion, of course.
But Jessa wasn’t the only member of her family to garner backlash on Mother’s Day.
Jana Duggar also had something nice to say about Michelle, which led to some seriously harsh comments from those who have followed the Duggars ever since they burst on to the reality show scene.
“How can she even show her face?” someone wrote about Michelle on Jana’s page. “She covered up what her son did to her daughters, she’s a monster, IMO.”
“Happy Mother’s Day to you, Jana, for raising your siblings. Happy Incubator Day to Michelle,” a second person penned.
Another also cited the Josh Duggar scandal (the first one, that is; not the one in which he confessed to cheating on his wife; or the one that has landed him in jail) and simply asked:
“Didn’t [Michelle] try to cover up sex abuse?”
The answer is yes. She did do this.
Jesse Duggar: My Mom is Awesome! She’s Godly AF! was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip.