Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar: Are They Failures Regarding Son Josh’s Molestations?

In a FOX interview with Megyn Kelly, Michelle Duggar indicated that she and Jim Bob felt like failures after the molestations by son Josh. Four of the girls Josh touched were his sisters– including Jill, now 24, and Jessa, now 22. The fifth was a babysitter. Jim Bob stated the following regarding that period in their lives, according to Good Morning America:

“[He said that it was] one of the most darkest times. Josh came to us on his own and was crying. He said he had improperly touched some of our daughters. He said he was just curious about girls and he had gone in and touched them over their clothes when they were sleeping.”

Michelle, in explaining, stated that the girls did not know about Josh’s wrongdoing until after speaking with them — as if to say that the girls were asleep at the time. She emphasized that they put safeguards in place after the first incident. However, the safeguards were not sufficient, as Josh went to his parents to confess a second incident.

After the third incident where Josh touched a girl of single-digit age, Michelle and Jim Bob decided they needed to get help. They took him to the police in police in Little Rock, Arkansas, where Josh allegedly confessed everything. When asked why it took so long for them to seek help, Michelle stated the following according to Good Morning America.

“There was so much grief in our hearts. I think, as parents, we felt, ‘We’re failures,’ You know, here we tried to raise our kids to do what’s right –to know what’s right….We were devastated.”

When asked why they waited so long to involve the authorities, Michelle and Jim Bob said that they visited a juvenile facility and had been told the success rate was poor there. In 2006, the police received a tip and interviewed the five female victims. Three years had passed since the 2002 and 2003 incidents and the statute of limitations had run out. No charges were pressed, according to the AP.

Michelle stated that all of the children received counseling. And Jim Bob Duggar stated that he had before going to the police taken Josh Duggar to a Christian counselor. Michelle Duggar noted that “[we] had all resolved it, we had forgiven, we had moved on in life.”

In a defensive statement against the press, the Duggars criticized the fact that the police reports were leaked involving minor children. And Michelle stated that her daughters “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.”

Jim Bob indicated that the family will go on and make a difference whether or not their 19 Kids and Counting program returns to the air. He said that the family is “fine whether they film us or not….We’re just going to go on and live life,” he said. “We’re going to go on and serve God and make a difference in the world.”

What do you think about the Duggars and the unspecified safeguards they put in place after Josh first touched the girls? Or was it too little too late as more than one incident occurred? Did it matter that he just touched them over their clothes or do you believe the girls were traumatized anyway? Do you think that the show should return? Please leave your comments below.

As stated in an Inquisitr article, two attorney panelists as well as interviewer Megyn Kelly, herself a former trial lawyer, the night before Fox News aired the Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar interview, asserted that after reading the state statute, there was no grey area or loophole and that the juvenile records should not have now been released and are not subject to Freedom of Information Act requests.