Jessa (Duggar) Seewald on new TLC show without Josh: "It's gonna be great"
Jessa Seewald is "looking forward" to returning to TLC in a new special, the 22-year-old reality star told fans on Saturday at the Southern Women's Show in Orlando, Florida.
"We're going to be doing some filming preparing to welcome this little one into our lives," the third-eldest Duggar daughter said of the recently-announced special that will follow her and husband Ben as they prepare to welcome their first child in November. "It's gonna be great."
TLC is also planning another special around Jessa's older sister Jill and her husband Derick Dillard. Cameras will follow the couple as they raise their infant son Israel and carry out mission work in Central America.
"We know that our audience is really excited about what's been going on with Jill and Jessa as they move into young adulthood," TLC Executive Vice President and General Manager Nancy Daniels told The Associated Press last week. "Now they're both at the precipice of big changes. With what was happening in their lives in the next few months, it felt like now is the time (for the specials), and we got going pretty quickly."
The network officially canceled the Duggar family's reality show, "19 Kids and Counting," in July in the wake of Josh Duggar's molestation scandal. It was revealed in May that the eldest Duggar son had admitted to molesting four underage girls, including Jessa and Jill, when he was 15.
Josh recently checked into a faith-based rehabilitation facility in Rockford, Illinois after it was also revealed that he had two accounts on Ashley Madison, a website aimed at helping married people cheat on their spouses. The 27-year-old later publicly apologized to his wife Anna for having a secret addiction to pornography. "I have been the biggest hypocrite ever," Josh wrote on the Duggar's official website. "While espousing faith and family values, I have been unfaithful to my wife."
Josh has not been seen in the public eye since checking into rehab, and a source close to the family told ET that the eldest Duggar will not be seen or mentioned on his sisters' new specials.
"It may be an elephant in the room if they don't mention it, but this [is] about Jessa and Jill," the source said.
Jessa and Jill, 24, were recently featured in "Breaking the Silence", a TLC special about child sexual abuse.
"It is going to take a long time before we forgive," a source told ET of how the family is dealing with the recent drama. "We are all still hurt. Josh is still in rehab, nobody is warm and fuzzy to him yet. It still feels like he is a stranger."