Duggars of ‘19 Kids & Counting’ granted guardianship of nephew, reports say
Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar have apparently added another child to their family. Credit: Getty Images / Brendan Hoffman
Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, stars of the former TLC reality show “19 Kids & Counting,” reportedly have been granted temporary guardianship of a nephew.
In Touch Weekly on Wednesday posted online what it said was an Aug. 31 order by a Benton County, Arkansas, court naming the couple as guardians of the minor child, whose name the magazine redacted. A follow-up hearing is scheduled for Nov. 14.
Both In Touch and GossipCop.com, which called the guardianship an “adoption,” said the unnamed 8-year-old boy is the son of Michelle Duggar’s 23-year-old niece, Rachel Hutchins.
The magazine posted what it said was a letter from the Arkansas Department of Health to an attorney in response to whether a state paternity registry “contained information related to an adoption.” The document lists Rachel Nicole Hutchins under “Mother” and has no name under either “Putative Father” or “Natural Father.”
GossipCop said Hutchins is homeless, unemployed and in unspecified trouble with law enforcement. Public records cited by In Touch said Hutchins was arrested in April on a felony charge of breaking and entering a Springdale, Arkansas, tow-truck business and stealing a pocket knife and two dollars, and that she is on three years’ probation.
The Duggar family’s website makes no mention of the guardianship.
