Duggars Finally Speak Out: “It Was Four Daughters & A Babysitter”

There are two things that the Duggar family are very good at doing: keeping their son's repeated acts of molestation a secret and projecting a squeaky-clean image. Somehow, parents Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar managed to keep their cool while discussing Josh Duggar's past and how "devastating" it was to Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly on Wednesday night. However, they admitted to several suspected rumors surrounding the 19 Kids and Counting stars, who are trying to survive this scandal with their dignity intact. Kelly confirmed that Josh had molested four of his sisters and a babysitter for at least two years while the girls were sleeping and awake. Jim Bob acknowledged that Josh had come to him and Michelle several times over those two years, while Josh was 13 through 15 years old, and confessed his actions "with a soft heart." This repeated act of confession, Jim Bob argues, was the "one ray of light" during the trauma. At 15, Jim Bob says that Josh was "pulled out of the house" after Josh had molested one of his sisters, whose age is only specified as a "single digit." Disturbingly, Jim Bob also says that Josh's victims "didn't understand" what was happening to them, so Jim Bob and Michelle didn't bother filling them in at first. They claimed to put up "safeguards in the home," but wouldn't specify what these safeguards were or why they were ineffective in stopping Josh's behavior. Michelle came close to tears during a few brief moments, but mostly let her husband do the talking. They claim that sending Josh away to a "Christian-based man" in Arkansas, who "worked with young men," helped Josh stop his predatory behavior. Still, it wasn't until 2006 that police discovered Josh's acts, and that was only through a tip — not through the Duggars. Without hearing from the victims themselves, it's difficult to know how Josh's sisters really felt — and feel — at this time. All we know for sure is that the Duggars felt that the whole situation "had been taken care of" by the time they signed up for a TLC reality show in 2008.