The recent release of Amazon’s Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets has shone a spotlight on the Duggar family, the famous clan that popularized 19 Kids and Counting on TLC just a few years ago. This extends to parents Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, and some family members, including Jill Duggar Dillard, who spoke out for the doc. But there are other associated family members who spoke out too, including Amy Duggar King, who is now opening up about learning about Josh’s previous molestation allegations and why the family might have covered up his behaviors. Her response was blunt: ‘I was pissed.’
Josh Duggar is currently serving a 10+ year prison sentence at FCI Seagoville in Texas, though Duggar’s release date has been somewhat fluid. He was sentenced on the greater of the two counts related to receiving and possessing child pornography he was on trial over. The fallout of this trial is looked at in Duggar Family Secrets, but now Cousin Amy is speaking out about the ILBP religion the family subscribes too, and the earlier molestation charges that broke years before her cousin’s arrest.
Amy King Recalls Learning About Josh Duggar’s Molestation Report
When In Touch uncovered a report about Josh Duggar allegedly having touched some young ladies, including his own younger sisters, when he was a teenager, the report had wide-ranging ramifications. 19 Kids and Counting was canceled. Jessa and some of her siblings tried to do damage control in a famous Megyn Kelly interview, which Jill at least regrets. Josh Duggar left reality TV completely.
In a wide-ranging interview with Vanity Fair, Amy King spoke out about how she felt when she learned of the molestation report back in 2015. She said she actually found out like everyone else – on the news – and had a blunt initial reaction to learning what her female cousins had gone through.
I was pissed. I felt like I wasn’t worth telling … that they didn’t want to protect me. They didn’t want anyone to know, [and] they wanted to keep it inside their little bubble. Secrets breed in the IBLP. Things are hidden.
She also said she once actually spoke to Josh about his behaviors before his recent legal troubles. According to her, he allegedly told her he “knew better” than to try and prey on her. She called herself “bold” for having stood up to Josh years before his arrest by federal agents in April of 2021.
So, Where Does Cousin Amy Feel Josh Duggar Went Wrong?
First and foremost, from what Cousin Amy said in the interview, she feels it was the attitude of the IBLP that ultimately led Josh to become the way he is. She said “absolutely” Josh knew what he was doing at the time and that he was enabled by those around him to engage in molestation behavior. Her full comment?
The IBLP prizes the first child, [and] it doesn’t get much better than if it’s a son. They hold the family name and the family value. If you’re valued from the moment you’ve been born and people hide your secrets and cover up things, and you never get in trouble for the things that you’re doing, I believe you just become numb to how the world really is, and how the law really is. It’s so sad how far it was taken, where he thought he could get away with anything.
Amy Duggar’s comments echo something that Jinger Duggar said about her brother Josh previously. As her own book on her experiences growing up Duggar hit shelves, the former reality star noted how her sibling had “two faces” and how that prompted them to speak out. Amy and Jinger both lived through the tumult of the incident in 2015, but it was the latter who was a victim of her brother’s actions and who called the news breaking in 2015 a “nightmare” in her book, noting she was “living in a nightmare that I wished with all my heart wasn't real.”
If you aren't caught up on the latest, Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets is currently streaming for those with an Amazon Prime subscription. And with other sister Jill Duggar Dillard writing a tell-all, there will doubtless be more learned about the family in the coming months.
