Just days before Josh Duggar was arrested on child pornography charges back in April, his family shared news of a very different sort of development.
Josh's wife, Anna Duggar, was pregnant with her seventh child.
At the time, fans had no way of knowing what sort of horrors would soon be revealed about Josh.
But even in that state of blissful ignorance, they met the news of Anna's pregnancy with a good deal of trepidation.
“We are overjoyed to announce baby seven is on the way and we can’t wait to hold her in our arms this fall!” Anna and Josh wrote on Instagram on April 23.
Josh's reputation as a sexual predator had been established years earlier, when the world learned that he had molested five young girls -- four of whom were his sisters -- while he was still in his teens.
With the help of his parents, Josh avoided prosecution for those crimes.
But it's not hard to see why fans might have been less than thrilled by the news that Josh would soon be a father of seven.
Not only is it horrifying to think of a known child molester living in a home with seven children, there were also concerns about how Josh and Anna could possibly support so many kids.
Josh was fired from the family's reality show following his first major sex scandal, and women are forbidden to work in the Duggars' world.
Now, with the start of Josh's trial just weeks away, fans believe that Josh and Anna have already welcomed their seventh child.
Rumors began to circulate last week, when Jim Bob Duggar announced his run for the Arkansas State Senate.
In his campaign announcement, Jim Bob mentioned that he has 22 grandchildren, a figure that had fans doing some quick calculations.
“In the Duggar’s FB post about JB running for office, they said they had 22 grandchildren,” one Reddit user wrote.
“That means Anna had the baby, right? When do you think the announcement with the name will be?”
"[T]here won’t be an announcement,” another pointed out.
“ANY direct publicity is opening up the floodgates.”
Others noted that the announcement might have referred to Jill Duggar's lost pregnancy or Joy-Anna's stillborn daughter, Annabelle.
“They could be counting Annabelle as the 22nd,” the Reddit user noted.
“And I think they would do that because I’m sure Joy considers herself a mother of three, not two. So, the announcement will be a day or two after she is born.”
And because the Duggars are of the belief that life begins at conception, they might also be counting Anna's unborn child as their 22nd grandchild.
Whatever the case, it's unlikely that there will be any sort of official announcement when the child arrives, which means there's a chance that Josh and Anna have already greeted their seventh.
And if that's the case, the kid couldn't have been born into much stranger circumstances.
Currently, Josh lives with a court-approved guardian, as he is not allowed to live under the same roof as any minors.
And whether she's pregnant or nursing, it seems Anna is still spending most of her time in Josh's new home.
“Anna is spending most of her time with Josh at the Rebers, and her family has stepped in to help raise all their kids,” an insider told The Sun.
“She takes them to visit him or they are looked after while she’s there alone. Despite what he’s been charged with, she refuses to believe he’s guilty.”
We'll have further updates on this developing story as more information becomes available.