Skip to Content

In recent months, the vast majority of the coverage surrounding the Duggar family has had to do with Josh’s arrest on child pornography charges.

Needless to say, that’s not exactly uplifting content.

So it’s not hard to see why the few remaining Duggar fans would be desperate for any sort of distraction.

And there was a brief stretch of time earlier this year in which this dwindling group of staunch loyalists actually had some good news to celebrate.

The Hollywood Gossip Logo

For years, Duggar diehards have been rooting for Jana to find the right man and settle down.

And for a while, it looked as though she had done just that.

Rumors that Jana was being courted by Stephen Wissmann began to circulate in March of this year.

Photo via Instagram

Wissmann is a Nebraska-based businessman and amateur pilot who of course also hails from an ultra-conservative clan of evangelicals.

For a while it looked as though he and Jana couldn’t get enough of one another.

She made frequent trips to Omaha, and she even spent Christmas with the Wissmann family, making it the first time that the 31-year-old spent the holiday anywhere but at home with her family.

The Hollywood Gossip Logo

Yes, Jana is only 31, but Duggar women are taught from a young age that procreation is their primary reason for being.

Several of Jana’s sisters got knocked up while they were still in their teens, and Jim Bob is reportedly baffled by his eldest daughter’s decision to spend her young adult years doing anything other than popping out babies.

Anyway, despite the highest hopes and best wishes of fans, it now looks as though Jana and Stephen have ended their relationship.

The Hollywood Gossip Logo

This was a highly unexpected development, as Duggar courtships almost always end in marriage.

In fact, the only exception we know of from Jana’s generation is the failed relationship between Josiah Duggar and Marjorie Jackson.

Even in those days, the reasons for the split remained under wraps.

The Hollywood Gossip Logo

And these days, the Duggars are much, much more secretive as a result of the latest scandal involving Josh.

Jana and Stephen never even confirmed that they were courting, so it seems very unlikely that they’ll ever speak publicly about the reasons for their breakup.

We’ll almost certainly never know exactly what happened, and both parties might go the rest of their lives without acknowledging that this relationship actually took place. 

The Hollywood Gossip Logo

But that won’t prevent fans on Reddit from speculating as to what might have happened.

“I think Jana is strategically waiting to get married until she’s past child bearing age because she doesn’t want to raise any more children," one redditor wrote.

“I think she just hasn’t found the guy for her yet. Or maybe she has no desire to be married, some people just don’t feel called to it," another theorized.

The Hollywood Gossip Logo

“Or she just wants to live her best life. I would want to be single after growing up mothering everyone," a third chimed in.

Yes, it’s true that Jana was forced to assume a motherly role at a very young age, as she helped her mother raise her 16 younger siblings.

But there’s no reason to assume that she’s averse to having children, or that her breakup with Wissmann had anything to do with her upbringing.

The Hollywood Gossip Logo

Jana has stated in the past that she’s very, very picky when it comes to chossing which men she’d like to get romantically involved with, and the most likely explanation is that she and Stephen simply couldn’t picture a future with each other.

That’s not necessarily bad news, especially since Jana doesn’t seem to mind being single.

But unfortunately, it means she’ll be forced to continue living with Jim Bob and Michelle for at least a little while longer.