Jason Duggar Initially Friendzoned His Now-Wife Before Realizing He 'Jumped the Gun': I Didn't 'See This Going Anywhere'

Yahoo

4 days ago

"I was like, 'I just don't see this going anywhere. I just see us as being friends,'" Jason admitted of the early stages of his relationship with wife Maddie
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Jason Duggar and Maddie Grace Duggar revealed that they decided to be friends at the beginning of their relationship during an appearance on The Jinger & Jeremy Podcast on Aug. 13
The pair explained that meeting online created a disconnect in their relationship, but they quickly realized they wanted to pursue a romantic connection
They got married in October 2024, 10 months after first meeting
Jason Duggar and wife Maddie Grace Duggar's relationship started off as a slow burn.
The newlyweds, who tied the knot in October 2024, opened up about their love story during a guest appearance on the latest episode of Jeremy Vuolo and Jinger Duggar Vuolo's podcast.
Though they got married less than a year after meeting each other on Instagram, Maddie, 21, recalled wanting to take her time in the beginning — and she even shut down Jason's invitation to the family's New Year's Eve party that year.
'We messaged each other for probably a week,' Jason, 25, shared on The Jinger & Jeremy Podcast on Aug. 13. 'We FaceTimed at about the week mark.'
'And then what happened, babe?' Maddie chimed in. 'Tell them what happened after that.'
'Then I was like, 'Hey, I just see us as being friends,'" he revealed. ''Cause I was like, 'I just don't see this going anywhere. I just see us as being friends.' And really what it was is we were both, I mean you say it all the time, we were both really uncomfortable just because I felt like we couldn't be real with each other. It's like we put up a front.'
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Jason explained that it was hard for them to 'feel natural' around one another.
Because they met online and were long-distance (Maddie lived 10 hours away in Tennessee while Jason was in Arkansas), the pair struggled to connect on a romantic level. Maddie also said that she didn't want her impression to be shaped by Jason's public presence.
'I was like, well, I don't want to look him up,' she added. 'I don't want to learn about him through that, but I've also seen you on the show, and I was like, I'm very different from them.'
When he proposed a friendship, Jason said Maddie agreed, but she admitted that she knew back then that she had deeper feelings for her now-husband.
'I was kind of liking you, but I also knew I couldn't be myself and you weren't being yourself, too,' she remembered. 'But instantly I was like, 'Oh, I can just be myself.' Because there's no pressure of like, 'Where's this going to go? Do I have to maintain a relationship?' So, I was just myself.'
Jason said he almost instantly regretting taking that step back.
Just a few days later, however, Maddie said Jason realized he 'made a mistake' by friendzoning her so soon.
'Jace was like, 'Hey, I think I jumped the gun. You have a lot of personality,'' she laughed. 'I was like, 'So, do you. What happened? Where'd this come from?''
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His change of heart came at the perfect time, Maddie noted, because she was 'about to put a stop' to their communication.
When she thought Jason had no intentions of taking the relationship to the next level, Maddie didn't want to continue feeling confused.
'Jace was still a little flirty with me, and I was like an hour away — I was praying, I was like, 'Lord, if this guy doesn't either say something and go back on it or he doesn't stop and just really figure out how to just be friends with me, I'm going to have to say something,'' she revealed. 'And I was like, 'Lord, I don't really want to say something. That's so awkward.'"
After talking with his friend, Jason said he knew he wanted to keep Maddie in his life, and they were married less than 10 months later.
'For me, it was easy just to want to have that distance,' he reflected. 'Maybe it was some things in the past that I hadn't worked through, and I maybe took that out on you a little bit at first, but I started to realize. I think when you're honest and when you're real with each other, when you don't put up a front, then I just started to realize that it really was you that I wanted to spend my life with, get to know better."
Read the original article on People