The Duggar family is facing controversy once again following the arrest of Joseph Duggar on charges related to child molestation. Duggar was charged with lewd and lascivious behavior involving a victim younger than the age of 12 and lewd and lascivious behavior toward a victim aged 18 or older, years after his brother Josh was sentenced for sending and receiving child pornography.
As details come out about this latest alleged crime, Page Six has shared the previous comments Joseph made back when Josh first confessed to molesting young girls, including his sisters, Jill and Jessa. (Though Josh wasn't charged for those actions, due to the statute of limitations, he was later arrested and is serving prison time for the aforementioned charges.) At the time before the arrest, Joseph spoke about his brother's molestation confession, and shared his opinion on the situation on Jill & Jessa: Counting On:
Whenever somebody you respect the most is willing to get up and proclaim what we believe as Christians, about being true to your wife, you’d never think that that’s the person who’s involved in it.
TLC canceled Counting On ahead of Josh's trial, allowing the family to deal with the situation in private. To see the large family face another similar controversy years later may prompt fans to search for answers or hope for a special episode on the 2026 TV schedule, but for now, it'll be up to the family members on how much they decide to share. According to their shared account, Josh and Kendra Duggar have not publicly shared anything on Instagram since 2021.
As for the charges that Joseph Duggar faces, this all stems from an alleged event that occurred back in 2020 during a vacation in Panama City, Florida. A now 14-year-old conducted a "forensic interview" and alleged that Joseph frequently asked the victim to sit on his lap, and that he put a blanket over her and touched her privates before apologizing and stopping.
The Bay County Sheriff's Office and the victim's father confronted Joseph Duggar about the claims on Tuesday, and reported that he confessed to the incident. He was detained and will be extradited to Bay County.
Counting On was a popular series during its time on TLC, but was not free from criticism. Comments were made about how the series felt like documenting a heavily misogynistic family, to the point that girls felt shame over wearing pants, as opposed to dresses. Joseph Duggar's arrest may lead to more documentaries about the former reality family, and spur even more think pieces about their series and how it holds up now.
We will see how the rest of this situation plays out, and how the rest of the Duggar family reacts to yet another family member getting caught up in this kind of troubling controversy.
