Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar are breaking their silence about the new docuseries digging into their lives and beliefs.
The couple — made famous by their TLC reality shows and later scandals involving eldest son Josh, who’s serving 12 years in prison on child porn charges — calls Prime Video’s Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets, which they didn’t participate in, “derogatory and sensationalized.” Among the doc claims are that the 19 Kids and Counting parents covered up Josh molesting five girls, four of whom were their daughters, when he was a teen and failed to get him treatment. Their daughter Jill Duggar Dillard, one of the victims, participated in the doc, and said her parents pressured her to defend Josh when the allegations surfaced.
“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 couple said in a statement on their website on Friday. “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.”
The statement continued, “We have always believed that the best chance to repair damaged relationships, or to reconcile differences, is through love in a private setting. We love every member of our family and will continue to do all we can to have a good relationship with each one. Through both the triumphs and the trials we have clung to our faith all the more and discovered that through the love and grace of Jesus, we find strength, comfort and purpose.”
Amy Duggar King, who also speaks out against her family in the doc, slammed her uncle and aunt’s statement.
“News flash: If you would have gotten Josh the real, true help that he needed a long time ago — actual therapy — we wouldn’t be in this mess,” Amy said in an Instagram video. “Those beautiful girls wouldn’t have so much to heal from. You are not a victim here. Stop playing the victim.”
Amy also took issue with Jim Bob and Michelle saying they prefer to “reconcile differences” privately, writing, “Anyone notice what seems like to me… gaslighting? The ‘private settings’ are what we are speaking up about!”
The four-part doc looks at how the ministry the family long followed and touted on their shows, Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP), teaches that women should be obedient to their husband and kids are taught to follow patriarchal standards and not to ask questions. Teachings include that when bad things happen, members should pray to put it behind them or ignore it rather than speak up, ex-IBLP members claimed.
The doc looks at how that teaching was in play around the molestation allegations against Josh, but also how it also cultivated a toxic environment within the IBLP ministry. Bill Gothard, who founded IBLP and promoted “male superiority and female obedience,” was accused of sexual harassment and molestation by over 30 women, including some minors, leading him to step down in 2014. The doc looks at how Josh was sent to an IBLP facility in 2003 when his parents learned he had been molesting girls. There, he didn’t get mental health therapy but did manual labor instead. Jim Bob picked him up early.
On Friday, Jill also posted a video to Instagram following Jim Bob and Michelle’s statement bashing the doc. In it, she thanked fans for their support of her speaking out. She encouraged them to order her upcoming book, Counting the Cost, co-written by her husband Derick Dillard.
“I know it’ll be difficult,” Jill said of releasing the book, “but I pray that it also just helps other people have a voice to maybe realize that they’re not alone.”
Counting the Cost, announced earlier this week, will detail the “greed, manipulation and betrayal” as well as “secrecy and lies” they faced, the couple promised.
Jill — the fourth Duggar child — waded into that in the doc. She claimed she was forced to do the 2015 Megyn Kelly interview defending Josh after his molestation claims were made public. She said she didn’t make a cent off of the reality shows, which ran from 2008 to 2020, even as an adult in her own spin-off, Counting On, resulting in her having to go to a food bank to feed her family at one point. She also claimed she didn’t want to film the birth of her first child for Counting On, but was told she had to.
Jim Bob’s sister, Deanna, also appeared in the doc, as well as Jim Bob and Michelle’s former best friends, Jim and Bobye Holt, who talked about the couple covering up Josh’s abuse as a child.
Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family executive producer Blye Pagon Faus previously told Yahoo she hopes Jim Bob and Michelle watch the docuseries “and maybe there’s some sort of reflection and changes.”
The docuseries is part of a long-running unraveling of the TV family, whose conservative faith and lifestyle was at the center of their shows. 19 Kids and Counting was canceled in 2015 after Josh’s abuse allegations first surfaced. Spin-off Counting On was axed in 2021 after Josh — now a father of 7 himself — was arrested on “worst of the worst” child porn charges. Earlier this year, Jinger Duggar Vuolo — the sixth Duggar — released a book detailing her upbringing in the cult-like ministry and talked about how “fear was a huge part of my childhood.”
