ReadMeLattice

Yep. As much as there may be some favoritism, I can tell you I would rather be one of Meri, Janelle or Christine's kids any day. I have a lot of empathy for Robyn's kids. (Plus they have to spend more time with Kody.)

Yes, and to be fair I think the intimacy situation meant more to her than just "I want sex and he won't give it to me." Kody is the only man she ever had sex with and in the cult she grew up in, there's no expectation of other markers of marriage - plural wives don't get legal recognition of any kind. They don't get adequate quality time, help with or public recognition of their children, etc. So the main difference between a plural wife and everybody else is sex; essentially, marriage IS sex to them. To her, Kody saying "we won't have sex again" was essentially a disavowal of the only thing that made them a married couple.

It was on her IG stories, not her posts. Ysabel, Logan and Michelle also posted supportive things and used the name Leon.

Yeah I will never understand why people can empathize with Meri for straying -- which I totally can as well -- but not with Mariah, who was: -18 at the time -raised as a polygamist -put on a national TV show about her parents' polygamous marriage -dealing with her parents' divorce and struggling with her own sexuality as she entered college -aware that her mom was being catfished, and warned her -dragged to MEET the catfish in person behind her dad's back -probably afraid the divorce and affair would leave her, not just Meri, even more alienated from her siblings and dad -aware that her mom's sexts would probably be splashed all over the internet and talked about at her school where she was trying to enter young adulthood Like, she's not perfect, she can be annoying, but I'd have been pretty displeased with my mom too. Especially at that age. They've clearly moved past it and that's great, but her being snotty about it at the time is not a shock to me or a sign that she's some truly awful person. I feel like the aftermath of the divorce is so focused on Meri that it's easy to forget that it probably affected Mariah too. Sure, it was a weird marriage to begin with, but it's the marriage Mariah's parents always had. And unlike the others, their marriage was the only thing really connecting Mariah to the rest of the family, as she didn't have full siblings. That's what I think too. Christine was probably trying to convince herself more than anyone else. She's also always struck me as an "all in or all out" type of person. If she's going to be married, she wants to have a real, affectionate marriage - not this grey area, kind-of thing that Janelle and Meri have with Kody. If she was going to be polygamous, she was going to be gung-ho about polygamy. If she's going to be divorced, she's going to be VERY divorced and clear about it.

Plus, while yes, she is obese and that's an important medical issue, so are almost half of Americans. I highly doubt she's the only overweight college student out there.

I wondered if they gave up that idea once they decided to be on the show and realized that probably wouldn’t go over well with viewers.

Here’s the interview with Dimitri’s previous “wife,” Ariadne. Basic bullet points: -she claims Dimitri choked her sexually and also choked her in a rage -claims Dimitri has physically abused Ashley -claims Dimitri and Ashley constantly tried to get her to have threesomes -claims Dimitri is a felon and keeps guns in the home illegally -claims Ashley pressured her to be naked around the house and was cruel to her children Idk, I have a hard time believing all these women are 100% lying and not a single instance of abuse has occurred.

Yeah, I honestly don’t know if he’s capable of shame.

“Wow, that sounds really bad for him! Like, really REALLY bad. For him. Anyway...” 😂

Yes, what a total bait and switch. They basically had them as background noise for a couple episodes before they were just main characters again. JB is never going to accept not being the protagonist of any story.

I could absolutely see this being the case. Jill seemed horrified that she had to talk about the abuse on camera when the news first broke, so I would imagine it’s very possible that she asked Derick not to make any statements about that specifically on her behalf. JB/the show might be his only “outlet” to publicly condemn. I get the strong sense that they’ve aligned on their messaging and what they want to complain or not complain about.

Yep. I’ve noticed that Jill tends to try to be a little more reticent and diplomatic. Derick has a more assertive and aggressive personality. My husband and I are the same and he’s definitely been our “spokesperson” at times in family issues like this, with my full permission/blessing and even my request. While Derick *might* be doing this without Jill’s OK, I think it’s just as likely that he fucking hates JB for watching idly as his wife was abused, then screwing her over in terms of payments for the show, which was the very minimum of what he owed her, and savors every chance he gets to defend his wife/himself against the mindless defenders of JB & co. That’s just me, though. That doesn’t make him some perfect angelic person, but it’s a little refreshing imo compared to many of the Duggar husbands who seem to just sit around watching their wives suffer and not saying a thing. I’m honestly surprised there aren’t many more arguments going on.

My god, he does have the most shark-eyes stare! No compassion in those things at all.

Gotta line up the MLMs in anticipation! 😂 God knows there are precisely zero other available jobs.

Exactly. I think what he means is that people will continue to criticize him online for his outrageous comments (which makes him... feel like a victim for some reason?). I don’t think he’s concerned about going back and easing the hurt to a wife or child. I doubt he’s ever apologized to them.