‘Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets’: The Bates Family Isn’t Attached to the Amazon Studios Docuseries
Duggar family followers are anxiously awaiting an Amazon docuseries that promises to expose the Duggar family’s secrets and the culture of abuse inside the Institute of Basic Life Principles, the ultra-conservative Christine Ministry the family is tied to. The Duggars aren’t the only well-known family attached to the ministry, though. Followers can’t help but wonder if anyone in the Bates family will appear in the docuseries. The Bates family, reality TV stars in their own right, were first introduced to the world on the Duggar family’s TLC series, 19 Kids and Counting. They were friends with the Duggars through the IBLP and went on to star in a reality TV show of their own. While they aren’t strangers to the camera, it doesn’t look like any of them will be making an appearance in Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets.
Will the Bates family appear in ‘Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets’?
The upcoming Amazon docuseries, Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets, is set to premiere on June 2. Ahead of its release date, followers are wondering if the Bates family will appear in the four-part series. It doesn’t look like any members of the Tennessee-based supersized family are attached to the project.
The trailer released by Amazon last week does not show any Bates family members. None of their names appear on the IMDb page associated with the project. While the family has grown and changed over the years, with some of Gil and Kelly Jo Bates’ kids opting to step away from the ministry, they are still largely involved. Gil Bates remains on the board of directors for the IBLP. He has not commented on the upcoming documentary, nor have any of the Bates children so far.
A Bates family member did publicly cut ties with the IBLP in 2019
While we have yet to find out everyone who is and is not involved in the upcoming Amazon docuseries, none of the Bates family members appeared in the trailer for Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets. They have not been seen in promotional material provided by production studio, either. That doesn’t mean all family members are still involved with the controversial Christian ministry, though.
Jill Dillard and Jinger Vuolo weren’t the first famous faces to put some distance between themselves and the IBLP. That distinction goes to Erin Paine. Erin, Gil and Kelly Jo Bates’ third child, took to Instagram in 2019 to reveal she and her husband, Chad Paine, had decided to move in a different religious direction. Chat was raised in the IBLP, too. The couple married in 2013. They are currently pregnant with their sixth child. Despite her vocal statements on the IBLP, Erin has not commented on the upcoming Amazon documentary.
