Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets is coming to Amazon Prime tomorrow. The documentary will explore the ins and outs of the infamous Duggar family, a unit of 19 children led by parents Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar. The Duggars ruled reality television for many years during their reign on TLC's 19 Kids And Counting, and its spin-off Counting On.
However, allegations against their eldest son, and later, his arrest for possession of child pornography, unraveled the family's carefully cultivated image. Shiny Happy People will explore the controversial values of the Arkansas-based clan, The Institute in Basic Life Principles, and other secrets that lay beneath the image 19 Kids and Counting cultivated.
Here is everything to know about the upcoming documentary, from its release date, to an examination of the family's religion:
It drops on June 2.
The Duggar Family documentary will drop on Amazon Prime on June 2. The limited series will include four episodes, all dropping simultaneously.
Shiny Happy People will feature a few Duggar family members, including Jill Dillard née Duggar, 32, and her husband, Derrick, 34. Amy King, 36, the Duggar's cousin who was known for being "rebellious," will also appear in the documentary with her husband Dillon, per PEOPLE.
IBLP, the Duggars' religion, will be a primary focus of the doc.
The Duggar clan followed the very conservative Institute of Basic Life Principles, or IBLP, and often promoted it on their shows. IBLP was founded and led by Bill Gothard, who was forced into resignation in 2014 due to molestation accusations. One source in the documentary accuses the religious sect of "raising little predators," per The New York Post.
Jill and Derick Dillard are the only members of the nuclear Duggar family to speak in the upcoming documentary.
Gothard's teachings were particularly sexist and required women to "submit to a male leader at all times." The sect followed an umbrella of authority, with Gothard at the top, while women and children were relegated at the bottom. He encouraged families to pursue homeschooling for their children in order to focus solely on IBLP practices.
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The institution also encouraged abuse as a form of discipline for young children. According to the documentary, the Duggars indulged in these practices, calling it "encouragements," per USA TODAY. Michelle Duggar also once detailed an abusive IBLP practice she used on her children to "break their rebellious spirit" as babies. It involved placing a baby's desired object just out of their reach, and hitting them each time they tried to grab it.
The Duggars were seen as the "poster family" for IBLP for promoting its values on a grand scale through their television shows. Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar reportedly did not agree with all of the institution's teachings, but often publicly endorsed the IBLP. In the documentary, multiple sources compare the IBLP to a cult, and one source claimed “Gothard turned every father into a cult leader and every home into an island."
Shiny Happy People is not the first time members of the Duggar family have spoken out about their religion. Jinger Duggar Vuolo, 29, released a memoir condemning parts of her religious upbringing earlier this year. In the book, she compares her brother Josh to Gothard, and says he was "living a lie," per US Weekly.
The series will explore the events surrounding Josh Duggar's allegations and arrest.
In 2015, information leaked that Josh Duggar had molested five young girls—four of his sisters and the family's babysitter—in 2002. The news, which was first leaked by InTouch Weekly magazine, led to the family's show being canceled. The documentary will explore these events, in addition to Jim Bob's attempt to hide and understate his son's wrongdoings for many years—both on and off camera.
Josh Duggar’s intake photo when he was arrested in April 2021.
Shortly after the initial allegations leaked, the Duggar family appeared on Megyn Kelly's The Kelly File on Fox News to rectify the situation and save their show from cancelation. Jill Dillard and her sister, Jessa Seewald, now 30, specifically took the interview as two of Josh's victims. In the third episode of the docuseries, Jill says she felt obligated to do the interview, per the Los Angeles Times.
“If I hadn’t felt obligated to like, one, do it for the sake of the show and two, do it for the sake of my parents, I wouldn’t have done it,” she said in the documentary's third episode, per the Los Angles Times.
Later, TLC picked up Counting On, which focused specifically on the older Duggar sisters' families. The show was officially cancelled in 2021 after Josh was arrested for possession of child pornography, per USA TODAY. The eldest son is currently serving a 12-year prison sentence for his charges. He has seven children with his wife, Anna Duggar.
The Duggar women were not properly compensated for their time on the show.
Jill Dillard confirms in the documentary that she was pressured by her father, Jim Bob, to continue filming for TLC after getting married, and manipulated by the network itself to film her first child's birth.
Jill and Derick agreed to film the birth of their eldest son, Israel, if the network compensated the couple to cover out-of-pocket costs. According to Derick, TLC said they would "pay the family."
The documentary reveals that Jim Bob controlled the bulk of the money earned from their TLC programs, and the older Duggar children were not fairly compensated for their contributions to the show. For context, some of the series' most popular episodes were the wedding and childbirth episodes, featuring a heavy spotlight on the eldest Duggar women.
“‘Pay the family’ means [Jill and I] don’t get anything at that point,” Derick Dillard says in the documentary, per the Los Angeles Times.
The documentary producers want to dive deeper into the IBLP.
While the upcoming docuseries explores how the IBLP affected the Duggars, producers Julia Willoughby Nason and Olivia Crist discovered just how pervasive the religious organization is throughout the world, and hope to do another documentary in the future.
Counting the Cost by Jill Duggar
Counting the Cost by Jill Duggar
"It went into our police system. It went into the military. And I think also, just how far and wide, like I said, the ideology spread," Crist told PEOPLE.
The Duggar family served as a "fascinating cultural touchpoint," for the producers to discuss the problems perpetuated by the IBLP but they hope to continue in the future. "IBLP's been around since the '60s, and just because we wrap production doesn't mean that the stories just stop there," Crist told PEOPLE.
Jill Dillard also plans to release a memoir later this year called Counting The Cost, which will "reflect on a story that has been difficult, yet hopeful," per her Instagram.
You can stream Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets on Amazon Prime on June 2.
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Olivia Evans (she/her) is an editorial assistant at Women’s Health. Her work has previously appeared in The Cut and Teen Vogue. She loves covering topics where culture and wellness intersect. In her free time, she enjoys cooking, running, and watching rom-coms.
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