Joy-Anna Forsyth (née Duggar)’s husband, Austin Forsyth, revealed that he faced backlash for not wanting to feature their son Gideon’s birth on Counting On.

“I don’t remember us having really big, like, ‘Oh, no, y’all can’t show this or whatever,’ [but] I think we did push back about having Gideon,” Austin, 31, explained during the Wednesday, February 19, episode of “The Jinger & Jeremy Podcast.” “I didn’t want any film crew there. I took a lot of heat for that.”

Austin went on to point out that some of Joy-Anna’s sisters had featured their children’s births on the show, which set a precedent for the other family members. “That’s something which Jessa and Jill, I believe, had already had Spurgeon and Israel [on the show], so I should have thought about it,” he said.

“It’s not something that, as a single guy, crossed my mind like, ‘One day, I’m going to have to make the decision if I’m going to have the network with cameras in our face,’” Austin continued. “There’s a lot you just don’t know how [to handle].”

Austin also admitted that he wasn’t always comfortable when he appeared on Counting On, which aired on TLC from 2015 to 2021. The show was cancelled in June 2021, just two months after Josh Duggar was arrested on child pornography charges.

“TLC will not be producing additional seasons of Counting On. TLC feels it is important to give the Duggar family the opportunity to address their situation privately,” the network told Us Weekly at the time.

“I didn’t really trust the producers or the camera guys — not that the camera guys really had anything to do with the production,” Austin explained during the podcast appearance. “I remember the producer telling me, ‘It used to be so hard getting stuff out of you and you always seemed like we were trying to entrap you or you always would think a long time about your answers and we just wanted something spontaneous.’”

After admitting that he didn’t know why he felt uneasy about appearing on the show, Austin added, “I guess I was thinking if I’m gonna be on camera and this is gonna be out there forever, I really wanna be careful what I say.”

Following the show’s cancellation, Austin explained that he and Joy-Anna, 27, have chosen to live “a different life” without cameras.

“We have three kids and just so much has happened over the last five years,” he told Jinger, 31, and Jeremy, 37. “It’s like, ‘Wow, I guess we did do that. And someone almost has to bring it up like, how was it being on the show or whatever? I’m like, well, I guess we did do that. Yeah. So it’s kinda weird.”

Austin and Joy-Anna tied the knot in 2017, and they share kids Gideon, 6, Evelyn, 4, and Gunner, 21 months.

It seems that Joy-Anna and Austin are on the same page about maintaining a more private lifestyle, and she revealed she was taking a break from posting on her YouTube channel in June 2024.

“Our main reason for wanting to step back a little bit is probably just the family privacy for our kids and us,” she said in a video posted on her YouTube channel about the decision. “Then two, the stress of having to, as life has gotten busier with two kids, I feel like, I need to prioritize other things.”