Early life
Jessa, 22, was born on 4 November 1992 and was raised in Tontitown, Arkansas in America.
As one of 19, Jessa has four older siblings and 14 younger siblings. Like the rest of her brothers and sisters, Jessa was homeschooled.
She was raised as an Independent Baptist Christian, and had restrictive access to technology growing up. As part of their beliefs, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar only allow their children to have chaperoned dates.
Fame
Jessa shot to fame with the rest of the family in 2004, in the Discovery Health Channel series 14 Children and Counting.
The show followed the lives of the Duggars, ‘from the time they woke up to the time they went to sleep’.
In 2008 the family’s regular series 19 Kids and Counting (previously 18, and 17 Kids and Counting) aired.
Alongside their TV shows, Jessa and her sisters Jana, Jinger and Jill wrote a book called Growing Up Duggar, which revealed what it was like to grow up in such a large family, and living with the family’s religion.
Marriage and children
In keeping with their religious beliefs, the Duggars announced Jessa’s courtship with Ben Seewald on their website in September 2013.
They got engaged in August 2014 and married in the November. In April this year, Jessa announced she and Ben were expecting their first child – due 1 November.
Sexual abuse revelations
In May 2015 Jessa’s brother Josh admitted to, when he was 14 and 15, sexually abusing five young girls – including four of his sisters.
Jessa confirmed in June that she had been one of her brother’s victims, revealing he’d engaged in ‘mild inappropriate touching’ when she was asleep and fully clothed.
However Jessa has insisted her brother is not a child molester or peadophile, claiming: “That is so overboard and a lie really.”