Rare News Desk
Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, stars of TLC’s “19 Kids and Counting,” discussed reports of sexual misconduct allegations against their oldest son, 27-year-old Josh, in an interview with Fox News’ Megyn Kelly on Wednesday.
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1. The Duggar parents said Josh first approached them about the incidents when he was 14. Jim Bob and Michelle said Josh told them “he improperly touched some of our daughters” because he was “curious about girls.”
“This was not rape or anything like that,” Jim Bob said.
In another incident, Josh told them that when the girls were asleep, he touched their breasts over their clothes. Later, he reportedly touched them under their clothes.
The parents said the victims included four of his sisters and a baby-sitter.
2. After those incidents, Jim Bob and Michelle said they took Josh to a Christian counselor. “As parents, we were trying to do the best thing we knew how,” Michelle said.
Later, they told Josh to tell the stories to a police officer who lived nearby.
“We felt like it was an important step for Josh to confess to the police what he had done because he’d broken the law. It was terrifying,” Jim Bob said.
3. Jim Bob and Michelle called recently leaked police records related to the incidents “an unprecedented attack on our family.”
Michelle said the children “have been victimized more by what has happened in the last couple of weeks than they were 12 years ago because, honestly, they didn’t even understand and know that anything had happened until after the fact when they were told about it.”
When Kelly asked the parents why they agreed to a reality show in the wake of the incidents, Jim Bob said, “We had nothing to hide. We’d taken care of all that years before.”
4. No decision has been made on the show’s fate. Although TLC recently pulled episodes of “19 Kids and Counting” from its schedule following the reports, the network has not revealed whether the series will continue, The Associated Press reports.
In the Fox News interview, Jim Bob said, “We are fine whether they film us or not.”
“We’re just going to go on and live life,” he added. “We’re going to go on and serve God and make a difference in the world.”
“Either way, we’re at peace,” Michelle said.
5. Other members of the family are speaking out. Jill and Jessa Duggar discussed the allegations in an interview set to air 9 p.m. ET Friday on Fox News, Newsy reports. Jessa said her brother’s actions were wrong but added, “I do want to speak up in his defense against people who are calling him a child molester or a pedophile or a rapist, some people are saying. I’m like, that is so overboard and a lie, really. I mean, people get mad at me for saying that, but I can say this because I was one of the victims.”
