The TLC reality show 19 Kids and Counting was always controversial, as it portrayed the Duggar family, who hold some very conservative views in regards to religion and gender roles, for instance, But as the show went on, it became best-known for its controversy, mainly involving oldest son Josh Duggar.
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00:00If you haven't heard of the massive Duggar family, then you might be a pop culture novice.
00:06This giant family was the star of one of TLC's most popular shows of all time, 19 Kids and
00:12Counting, from 2008 to 2015.
00:15Jim Bob Duggar and his wife Michelle are members of a religious and conservative community
00:20that values modesty, obeying the patriarch as head of a family, and above all else, having
00:25lots and lots of children.
00:27But despite the family's wholesome face, they've been questioned in the media for their anti-gay,
00:31values-voter views.
00:33And the scandals surrounding their busy home life have dominated the news feeds for a while
00:38now.
00:39Here's the untold truth of the Duggar family.
00:4117 Kids and Counting
00:44When the reality show first premiered on TLC in 2008, it had a different name.
00:49Why?
00:50Because little Jordan Grace and baby Josie were still just twinkles in Jim Bob's eyes.
00:55These two children's filmed entrance to the world provided a lot of material for good
00:59reality TV.
01:00Eventually, what was once 17 Kids became 18 Kids, and you know the rest.
01:05Will Jim Bob and Michelle welcome any more kids into their family?
01:09This mom in her late 40s sought fertility counseling to assess the possibility of even
01:14more little Jim Bobs or Michelles, but was told that conception would be highly unlikely.
01:19You'd think she'd be relieved, because…
01:21You know, I'm never gonna get out of diapers and dishes, and I'm never gonna catch up with
01:25the laundry and…
01:27But nope.
01:28At the age of 45, when Michelle Duggar announced that the family would soon welcome baby number
01:3220, the clan was all smiles.
01:34Tragically, Michelle suffered a miscarriage.
01:37What stirred up controversy surrounding this sad event was the family's decision to name,
01:42photograph, and have a full funeral service for the would-be 20th Duggar.
01:46They even published a photo of the stillborn for all the world to see.
01:50The Jays
01:51You may have noticed that all 19 of the Duggar offspring have been given first names that
01:56start with the letter J, and the inspiration came from the Bible, of course.
02:00They named their first son Joshua, and things took off from there.
02:04A set of twins came next.
02:05John was another biblical name, and wanting to name the girl twin Anna after a family
02:10member, the parents decided to add a J in front, for honor.
02:14They stuck with the custom into perpetuity, stating that they didn't want any future kids
02:18to be jealous that they weren't part of the J tradition.
02:22House of Representatives heritage
02:24Long before the fame, family patriarch Jim Bob Duggar served the state of Arkansas as
02:29a House Representative.
02:31He ran on an anti-abortion, family values platform and served for one term in the early
02:362000s, before challenging the Arkansas incumbent for his Senate seat and losing in 2002.
02:43Conservative activism
02:44In 2013, eldest son Josh Duggar followed in his father's politically conservative footsteps
02:50and accepted a position with anti-gay rights group the Family Research Council.
02:54The FRC has been classified as an anti-gay hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center,
03:00and has a long history of attacking the LGBT community and their friends, family, and allies.
03:05Similarly, Josh's mother and family matriarch Michelle Duggar famously narrated a political
03:11robocall that went out to Arkansas voters urging them to oppose legislation meant to
03:15protect human rights.
03:17Arkansas is unlike most of the rest of the nation in that it is still legal for a person
03:21to be fired from their job for being gay or be kicked out of their housing for being transgender.
03:27Michelle's opinion was that new laws to protect these groups should be blocked.
03:31Scandal
03:32In May 2015, InTouch broke the story that the eldest boy, Joshua Duggar, had been investigated
03:38for, and admitted to, molesting five underage girls when he was a teenager.
03:43More than one of the girls were reportedly his sisters.
03:46The magazine was able to access a hidden police report from 2006 via a Freedom of Information
03:52Act request that detailed the incidents.
03:54But these abuses may never have come to light if a family friend hadn't written notes about
03:58Josh's actions, stashed them in a book, and then forgetfully lent the book to a friend
04:03who discovered the letter and notified police in 2006.
04:07The family, and certain members of their religious community, reportedly knew about
04:10the attacks that occurred, but did not immediately alert authorities.
04:14Rather than be tried by law enforcement, Jim Bob instead met with the elders of his church
04:19and told them what was going on.
04:21He had just turned 14, and he said that he had actually improperly touched some of our
04:29daughters."
04:30Josh was reportedly sent to a Christian program where he would supposedly undergo, quote,
04:34hard physical work and counseling.
04:36However, as was also uncovered in the police reports, Michelle Duggar later admitted to
04:41police that he had merely been sent to stay with a family friend to help him with his
04:45construction business.
04:46Jim Bob had also blocked police requests to interview Josh.
04:50Although the investigation had to be abandoned due to the statute of limitations, the Duggar
04:54family and TLC became the focus of a media frenzy once word got out about Josh's deviant
05:00behavior and how his family tried to cover it all up.
05:04Ashley Madison and addiction
05:06Another shocking development hit the headlines just a few weeks after Josh's initial scandal.
05:11The massive hack of AshleyMadison.com, the notorious extramarital affair hookup website,
05:17revealed that his name and address was also associated with two separate monthly affair-guaranteed
05:22level accounts, for which he'd paid almost $1,000.
05:25Josh, who had proposed to and married his wife on the show, remained mum for a few weeks,
05:30and then posted a public apology on his mother Michelle's popular blog.
05:34His apology included the following statement,
05:37"...while espousing faith and family values, I have secretly over the last several years
05:41been viewing pornography on the internet, and this became a secret addiction and I became
05:45unfaithful to my wife."
05:47And the twists keep coming.
05:50Homeschooling
05:51It's common knowledge that the Duggars have long chosen to homeschool their kids.
05:55But did you know that the Christian curriculum they follow has its own share of abuse scandals?
05:59Gawker reported in 2015 that the family adheres to a homeschooling program from the Advanced
06:05Training Institute, which is a Bible-based homeschooling program run by alleged cult
06:10figurehead Bill Gothard.
06:11Gothard himself has been accused of improper advances on young girls, but that's not where
06:16the creepiness ends.
06:17The curriculum itself has an entire section on what to do when an older male child sexually
06:22abuses a younger child of the same family.
06:25One such lesson describes a hypothetical situation where parents discover that an older
06:30brother was guilty of sexually abusing younger ones in his family.
06:34It also offers a bunch of religiously-focused questions parents should ask a brother after
06:38he's repented.
06:39The similarities between this hypothetical and what actually happened are too eerie to
06:44ignore.
06:46Cancellation
06:47Amid all the pressure coming from the public and from other media outlets, in July 2015,
06:53TLC announced that it would no longer air 19 Kids and Counting.
06:56In their press release statement, the network stated they were
06:59"...concerned for the victims in this situation, including the Duggar family."
07:03In light of criticism that the network continued to air new episodes of 19 Kids and Counting
07:08for over a year after the scandal was unearthed, and was seemingly using the molestation case
07:13as a ratings booster, TLC worked with victims' rights and advocacy organizations to produce
07:18a 60-minute documentary about victims of abuse.
07:21However, since this documentary also starred the Duggars, it did little to satisfy the
07:25public's thirst for justice or stop the deluge of tabloid interest in the family.
07:31Spinning off
07:32It seems TLC and the Duggars have seen their way clear to re-establishing their high-ratings
07:37relationship without involving the admitted sexual predator Joshua Duggar.
07:41"...the devil took his best shot, and he tried to take our whole family down."
07:46Two of the older daughters, Jill and Jessa, were both Joshua's victims in the past, but
07:50now have their own husbands and children.
07:52They're now the stars of a new TLC reality show, Jill and Jessa Counting On.
07:57So if you haven't heard enough from this controversial family, you can still get your fix.