In October 2025, a claim spread online that Josie Duggar — best known as the 19th child of the Duggar family on the faith-focused reality television shows "19 Kids and Counting" and "Counting On" — had died of cancer.
The rumor largely spread on Facebook and YouTube. Posts claimed the youngest Duggar daughter "breathed her last after a long battle with cancer" and had died at age 16.
This rumor had no basis in fact. A Google search and review of Josie Duggar's biography page on the official Duggar family website found no results indicating she ever had cancer. No reputable reports indicate that she has died, according to another Google search. Furthermore, several of her older sisters posted video and images of her younger sibling looking alive and well as recently as Oct. 13. Thus, we rate this claim false.
Snopes reached out to the Duggar family to request additional information and will update this story if we hear back.
Here's the video four of the Duggar sisters — Joy-Anna Forsyth, Jinger Vuolo, Jill Dillard and Jessa Seewald — posted on Instagram, in which Josie Duggar is the last girl shown. The caption noted that every Duggar sister is in the video except Jana Duggar. The thumbnail of the video also shows Josie Duggar at the far right.
Vuolo said in another post that the reunion happened during Share the Arrows, a conservative Christian conference in Texas that she spoke at. Vuolo's post also included additional photos of her youngest sister.
Josie Duggar was born premature on Dec. 10, 2009 — making her 15 as of this writing, a year younger than the death hoax posts claimed. Her family has been open about her health complications; her journey home from the intensive unit featured heavily on "19 Kids and Counting," which aired on TLC from 2008 to 2015. She also often appeared in a spin-off show, "Counting On," which aired from 2015 to 2020.
Given the length of time the youngest Duggar daughter has starred in two well-known reality shows, if the family had announced that she received a cancer diagnosis or had passed away, reputable entertainment media outlets would have certainly reported on it.
Snopes has previously looked into other rumors about the Duggar family, such as whether they cut "Trump 2020" into their front lawn.