Jana Duggar and Stephen Wissmann married in an Arkansas ceremony on Thursday, Aug. 15. The wedding came as a shock to Duggar family followers, who largely assumed Stephen and Jana had broken up years earlier. As it turns out, they did, and Jana only entertained rekindling the romance because of a handwritten note. Without the note, she would have told her new husband to “get lost.”
At 34, Jana Duggar hoped to get married one day, but her romance with Stephen Wissmann wasn’t on her radar in recent years. The duo reportedly dated years earlier but split up. In an interview with People, Jana revealed that Stephen always remained on the periphery, even after their first romance soured. Still, she didn’t think he was the one initially. He made a move to win her back, though, and he was successful, but only thanks to a handwritten note.
Jana revealed to the publication that Stephen asked her on another date via a handwritten note, which she found sweet. She said that note was the key to their eventual romance. She told the publication that she would have told Stephen to “get lost” if he had opted for a digital message instead of a handwritten one.
According to the couple, they reconnected in early 2024 and became engaged in June. They quickly found the wedding venue of their dreams and married on a Thursday in August. Stephen’s large family provided the food. The bride was walked down the aisle by her father, Jim Bob Duggar, and attended by several of her sisters and one sister-in-law.
The Duggar family does not generally publicize the end of relationships. It doesn’t fit their previous assertion that “courtship” protects people from heartbreak. In the years since they became public figures, they’ve only publicly announced the end of one courtship. Josiah briefly dated Marjorie Jackson before calling it quits. Later, fans learned that Josh Duggar, the family’s disgraced oldest son, also had a broken courtship.
