{"id":29507,"date":"2025-10-21T12:33:55","date_gmt":"2025-10-21T16:33:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=29507"},"modified":"2025-10-21T12:33:55","modified_gmt":"2025-10-21T16:33:55","slug":"duggar-cousin-details-confronting-josh-duggar-for-abusing-his-sisters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/10\/duggar-cousin-details-confronting-josh-duggar-for-abusing-his-sisters","title":{"rendered":"Duggar Cousin Details Confronting Josh Duggar For Abusing His Sisters"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Left: Kathy Hutchins \/ Shutterstock.com | Right: Washington County Police Department<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Duggar family, once the darling of reality show fans after the premiere of their show, \u201c19 Kids and Counting\u201d has had a meteoric fall from grace. Abuse allegations against the eldest Duggar son, Josh Duggar, who allegedly sexually abused some of his sisters and other girls, broke the family\u2019s picture-perfect fa\u00e7ade. A breach of Ashley Madison\u2019s data, a site that allows married men to look for mistresses, soon revealed that Josh was one of the site\u2019s clients. Then, in 2021, Duggar was arrested and charged with possessing child pornography. He was found guilty on all charges and sentenced to 12 years in prison in 2022.<\/p>\n

Since then, the bad press has continued for the Duggar family, with Amazon Prime\u2019s new documentary series, \u201cShiny, Happy People\u201d taking a hard look at the Duggar family, particularly its faith practices. Now, a tell-all book entitled Holy Disruptor<\/em> from Amy Duggar King, Josh\u2019s cousin who appeared on the show as \u201cCrazy Cousin Amy,\u201d is detailing what was going on behind the scenes as the family grappled with Josh\u2019s abuse. She has not had much contact with the family since 2019. \u201cI haven’t talked to [Josh], and I won’t reach out, and I will not contact him, but my heart goes out to the victims, and it goes out to just anyone who’s ever experienced anything like that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Today<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>she discussed her first reaction of learning about Josh\u2019s abuse. Her first thought was how she had allowed Josh to hold her newborn son, Daxton. \u201cI have never felt more betrayed than in that moment, when this beautiful, precious newborn is in the hands of a monster. I just vowed to myself that will never happen again. I will protect him at all costs,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She called the abuse \u201cpreventable\u201d and described Josh in his early years as \u201cthe most loving, caring person.\u201d She described her book as \u201cconnecting the dots\u201d of what happened to Josh. \u201cI just told myself that God wouldn’t have allowed me to go through all of this if it’s not for a reason. I’m prepared for the backlash,\u201d she said. She lays the blame for Josh\u2019s change from a caring, normal young man to a sexual deviant on a number of factors, including his parents\u2019 failure to get him proper counseling, an abusive grandpa, and the Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP), the nondenominational fundamentalist Christian organization that shaped the family\u2019s faith life.<\/p>\n

Speaking to People<\/em><\/a>, King claimed she confronted Josh about abusing his sisters and asked why he hadn\u2019t abused her. Josh responded that he \u201cknew better.\u201d \u201cIt was the creepiest smile. In that moment, I just looked at him, and I was just like, ‘I don’t know you at all,'” she said. While acknowledging there might be pushback, King said it was important to bring the truth to light. \u201cWriting [this book] was the most difficult thing I’ve ever had to do,” she said. “I pushed myself to my limits. I cried all the time writing it, but I just wanted to be brave and tell the truth.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Duggar family, once the darling of reality show fans after the premiere of their show, \u201c19 Kids and Counting\u201d has had a meteoric fall from grace. Abuse allegations against the eldest Duggar son, Josh Duggar, who allegedly sexually abused some of his sisters and other girls, broke the family\u2019s picture-perfect fa\u00e7ade. A breach of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":29510,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nDuggar Cousin Details Confronting Josh Duggar For Abusing His Sisters<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Amy Duggar King\u2019s book Holy Disruptor exposes hidden truths about Josh Duggar\u2019s abuse and the family\u2019s troubled faith legacy.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2025\/10\/duggar-cousin-details-confronting-josh-duggar-for-abusing-his-sisters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta 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