Jill Duggar Says She ‘Felt Obligated’ to Help Brother Josh After Molestation Scandal
Jill Dillard (née Duggar) expressed her regret for showing solidarity with her disgraced brother, Josh Duggar, in a past interview.
“In hindsight, I would not have done the Megyn Kelly stuff,” Jill, 32, said during episode 2 of the Prime Video documentary, Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets, which premiered on Thursday, June 1. “I felt like I was in a place again of, like, bearing the burden and the weight of just — even though you volunteer, it’s like you feel obligated to help.”
In May 2015, In Touch broke the news of Josh’s molestation scandal. According to documents exclusively obtained by In Touch, it was revealed that Josh had inappropriately touched five young girls when he was a teenager in 2006. At the time, however, he was never charged with a crime. Shortly after the molestation scandal broke, Josh’s sisters Jill, Jessa Seewald (née Duggar), Joy-Anna Forsyth (née Duggar) and Jinger Vuolo (née Duggar) were revealed to be four of the six victims.
In the wake of Josh’s molestation scandal, Jill recalled hiding from paparazzi and noted that her father Jim Bob Duggar’s public relations representative, Chad Gallagher, set up the interview with Megyn Kelly on her now-defunct show, The Kelly Files.
In June 2015, Jill and Jessa, 30, sat down with Megyn, 52, to discuss Josh’s molestation scandal. After recounting her reaction to the news about Josh, 35, Jill insisted that she and the rest of the Duggars had already “moved on” from the issue.
“This was something that’s already been dealt with. We’ve already forgiven Josh,” Jill told Megyn at the time.
The former 19 Kids and Counting Star concluded the interview by agreeing with Jessa, 30, that their whole family had forgiven Josh.
“It was a done deal,” Jill said after Jessa noted that the Duggars all “moved on.”
Two months after the sisters’ interview on The Kelly Files, Josh was involved in a second scandal. During the Ashley Madison data hack, a website for people who are looking for partners to engage in extramarital affairs, Josh was exposed as having an account on the site. He admitted to having a paid subscription and issued a public apology to his wife, Anna Duggar. He then checked himself into a rehabilitation facility, which his family labeled as a “long-term treatment center” in a statement published to their family blog at the time.
Nearly six years later, Josh made headlines again for a third scandal when he was arrested and taken into police custody in April 2021 upon being charged with one count of possessing and one count of receiving child pornography. He pleaded not guilty but was later convicted of both counts in December 2021, with the possession conviction eventually being dismissed. He was sentenced in May 2022 and is now serving his 12.5-year prison sentence at the Federal Correctional Facility (FCI) Seagoville in Texas.
The Shiny Happy People documentary focuses on the controversial non-denominational Christian organization that the Duggar family belonged to, IBLP (The Institute in Basic Life Principles), founded in 1961 by Bill Gothard. The program features Jill, her husband, Derick Dillard, and cousin Amy King (née Duggar) discussing their personal experiences with the institution, which has been likened to a cult, and what it was like growing up within the confines of the belief system.
“We were part of IBLP for as long as I can remember,” Jill stated in one moment in the series.
As for her reason behind appearing in the bombshell documentary, the former reality TV personality noted, “There’s a story that’s gonna be told, and I would rather be the one telling it.”
Shortly after the docuseries premiered, Jim Bob, 57, and wife Michelle Duggar released a statement, expressing their dissent with the production.
“The recent ‘documentary’ that talks about our family is sad because in it we see the media and those with ill intentions hurting people we love,” the spouses wrote on their website. “Like other families, ours too has experienced the joys and heartbreaks of life, just in a very public format. This ‘documentary’ paints so much and so many in a derogatory and sensationalized way because sadly that’s the direction of entertainment these days.”
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