Jill Duggar Says Her Parents’ Decision to ‘Protect’ Josh Made Her ‘Sick’ to Her ‘Core’
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Jill Duggar Dillard has revealed that she felt “sick” that her parents, Jim Bob Duggar and Michelle Duggar, went the extra mile to cover up son Josh Duggar‘s molestation of her and several of her sisters when they were growing up.
In her memoir Counting the Cost, released on Tuesday, September 12, Jill, 32, wrote how her parents’ decision to guard Josh began to impact her. “Though I love my parents and it made a lot of sense that they would want to protect and care for their child, I couldn’t help but think about the lengths that Pops had gone to in order to guard Josh’s privacy and keep him from being publicly humiliated,” she explained.
“I mentioned this to Derick, and he said that he had noticed the same thing. The feelings grew stronger within me, and by the time I went to bed I felt sick to my core,” Jill continued about how she had discussed the molestation with husband Derick Dillard, 34.
In 2015, Josh admitted to molesting his sisters as a teenager, but his parents learned about the inappropriate touching in 2002 after one of his siblings claimed that eldest Duggar son — who was 14 at the time — touched her breasts and genitals while she was sleeping and that it happened on multiple occasions. Her brother admitted to doing so to his father when questioned, and Jim Bob disciplined Josh rather than report the incidents to the police.
In March 2003, Josh was accused by several of his sisters of touching their breasts and genitals while sleeping as well as when they were awake. Jim Bob met with the church elders and told them what was going on but did not alert law enforcement. Instead, Josh was sent to a treatment center in Little Rock, Arkansas, run by the institute of basic life principles. The Duggar family has remained faithful to the nondenominational Christian sect for years, with former family friends Jim and Bobye Holt claiming in the 2023 Amazon docuseries Shiny Happy People that Jim Bob and Michelle have taken over the role of IBLP’s head from Bill Gothard.
Content retrieved from: https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/jill-duggar-says-her-parents-193045814.html.
