12:25 am - 02/20/2014

'We won't kiss until our wedding day': Jessa Duggar opens up about courting her boyfriend

19 Kids & Counting star and devout Christian Jessa Duggar has revealed that she won't kiss her boyfriend until their wedding day.

In the eighth season of the show, due to premiere on April 1, the 21-year-old from Arkansas tells how she and her beau, Ben Seewald, stick to traditional religious dating rules.

They avoid physical contact completely, only hugging briefly to say hello or goodbye - a step up from when they first starting dating and just a quick 'side hug' was allowed.

Michelle Duggar - who has guided her daughter through the throes of courtship - confirms in a press release for the upcoming installment of 19 Kids & Counting: 'They want to wait on the physical relationship until later.'

Jessa announced last fall that she had struck up a relationship with Ben, three years her junior, after the two met at church.

'We are so excited for Ben and Jessa,' Jim Bob, the Duggar family patriarch, told People magazine at the time.

'They are enjoying getting to know each other and are recommending sermons to one another.'

Ben is the owner of Affordable Windshield Repair in Hot Springs, Arkansas; and he also works at the Diamante Country Club.

The Duggars define courtship as a couple deciding whether marriage is appropriate while in a group setting with both of their families.

As devout fundamentalist Christians, they believe in waiting until the wedding before a couple can share even a chaste kiss.