Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar of TLC’s massively popular “19 Kids and Counting” gave their first television interview Wednesday since news became public that their son Josh molested several of his sisters more than a decade ago.
They dealt with their son as best they knew how at the time — and are convinced that he has since reformed, the couple told Fox News’ Megyn Kelly.
“We were shocked, we were just devastated,” Michelle Duggar said. “I don’t think any parent is prepared for trauma like that. I think the one ray of hope is that Josh had a tender conscience and he came and shared [it] on his own.”
The family has been pummeled in the press since last month, when a leaked police report showed that the eldest son, Josh, was investigated for allegedly molesting four of his sisters and a babysitter when he was 14 years old.
Saying he “acted inexcusably,” Josh has since resigned from his position as director of the conservative Family Research Council in D.C.
Jim Bob and Michelle laid out their side of the story in a wide-ranging interview where they shared how they dealt with the son after he admitted to molesting the girls — and expressed hurt that the police report was illegally made public even though it contains information about minors.
The leaked report is hurting their daughters more than the actual molestation, since the girls were either asleep or weren’t aware of it at the time it occurred, Michelle said.
“They’ve been victimized more by what happened in these last few weeks than what happened 12 years ago because they didn’t understand,” she said. “As a mamma that breaks my heart for my girls.”
Josh admitted several times to molesting his sisters, and after the third time they sent him away to receive counseling and do physical labor with a friend they trusted, Jim Bob and Michelle said.
In the first occurrence, Josh snuck into a bedroom while his sisters slept and touched them over their clothes, the couple said. On two other occasions he admitted to touching them both over and under their clothing.
“This was not rape or anything like that, this was touching over their clothes,” Jim Bob said. “There were a few times he touched them under their clothes but it was like a few seconds.”
The Duggars agreed to be part of the reality TV show several years after the incidents — and they had no hesitations because they believed it to be resolved, as they had taken the matter to the police.
“It had all been resolved, it had been forgiven, we had moved on in life,” Michelle said.
