Anna Duggar: What Will Happen to Her When Josh Goes to Prison?

When a woman marries into a family like the Duggars, pretty much every moment of the rest of her life is planned out for her.

She knows that the rest of her days will be devoted to pregnancies and child-rearing.

She won't be permitted to work outside the home and when she eventually gets too old to have more children of her own, she'll turn her attention to helping raise her grandchildren, who are sure to be numerous.

Of course, this plan is based on the assumption that she married a "godly" man who will support this massive brood uncomplainingly and abide by the strict code of behavior laid out for him by his ultra-conservative community.

So when a man like Josh Duggar violates that covenant so egregiously, the betrayal is even more shocking than it would be in most cases, and it leaves his wife wholly unprepared for how to carry on in the aftermath.

If convicted of all the child pornography charges against him, Josh could be sentenced to 20 years behind bars.

Anna is currently pregnant with her seventh child and has never held a job in her adult life.

Anna Duggar and Josh Duggar Announcement

You can see how that combination of circumstances might place her in a very perilous position at the moment.

Anna hasn't had much to say about the Josh situation, and her in-laws probably prefer it that way.

Insiders say she believes that her husband is 100 percent innocent of the charges against him, and she's bought into a bizarre conspiracy theory which holds that Josh was framed by the Biden administration.

Anna Duggar and Josh Duggar Throwback

So there's a chance that Anna genuinely believes that Josh will beat the charges against him.

But hopefully, she's spent some time preparing for the fact that if he doesn't, she'll be on her own for the first time in her life.

Folks on the always-entertaining r/DuggarSnark subreddit have spent a good deal of time considering what Anna's future looks like if the judge throws the book at Josh.

Anna Duggar and Awful Husband

And not surprisingly, most of their predictions are pretty grim.

"If [Josh] goes to jail … I do think Anna will be moved into the house to take care of the kids in exchange for room and board in Josh’s absence,” one commenter guessed.

“Anna will move into [Michelle and Jim Bob’s house] with her kids … Hopefully they’ll give Anna the guest room downstairs that used to be Grandma Duggar’s instead of making her stay in the girls room,” another wrote.

Anna Duggar and Josh Duggar on 19 Kids and Counting.

“I sort of think it would be in their best interest at this point to just pretend that Josh and his whole family don’t exist,” a third chimed in.

Another redditor suggested that when Anna delivers her baby, Jim Bob and Michelle will share the news with fans on their Instagram page, but will not allow commenting on the post.

Their situation is as unprecedented as Anna's, and it's really anyone's guess how the patriarch and matriarch of the Duggar family will relate to their daughter-in-law if Josh goes to prison.

Anna Duggar and 6 Children

They might welcome her entire family into their home.

But it seems just as likely that they'll cut off contact with Anna completely.

At this point, nothing that this family does could surprise us.