Duggar Cousin Amy King Speaks of Moment She Called Josh Duggar Out for Sex Abuse

Duggar cousin Amy King, Jim Bob Duggar’s niece, was often featured on the family’s TLC reality show as the “normal” family member who spent time in their home but wasn’t a part of their brand of fundamentalist Christianity. As such, her birds-eye view of her cousin’s childhood was especially interesting in the Amazon documentary “Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets.”

King, who has never been coy about talking about her famous relatives, isn’t done opening up about them yet. Since the documentary premiered, so has a Vanity Fair article in which she openly discussed confronting cousin Josh Duggar (now incarcerated on child sex abuse material charges) about his sexual abuse of his own sisters. She says she was especially angry that she learned about the allegations through the media, like the rest of the world. She was totally blindsided.

“I was p—–,” she told Vanity Fair. “I felt like I wasn’t worth telling … that they didn’t want to protect me. They didn’t want anyone to know, (and) they wanted to keep it inside their little bubble.”

If I were King (or her mother, Jim Bob Duggar’s sister), I would also be incensed that I had not been warned about how to best protect myself or my child. Jim Bob seems to have been much more concerned with protecting his family’s image than with protecting his actual family. Gross.

King continued her story by saying that after she learned about Josh’s abuse of his sisters, she decided to personally confront him.

“He was staying in a trailer and I went in there and I said, ‘How could you do this? … And I was very bold about that,” she said.

She says he responded by saying he “knew better” than to try and abuse her (again, gross. But Kudos to King for not being an easy target?) She suggested that he inferred that this was because he targeted people he knew would not speak out about what he had done to them.

Can I say GROSS again? This glimpse into the mind of a predator is so infuriating.

Finally, King discusses her Uncle Jim Bob and Aunt Michelle’s reactions to Josh’s sexual abuse of their own children, and she doesn’t mince words. Their behavior after the fact, she says, is “evil.” King is referring to the fact that they sent Josh away to an Institute for Basic Life Principles training center instead of getting him real help, and then welcomed him back into their family, putting their other children in harm’s way once again.

The Shiny Happy People documentary also alleges that Jim Bob tried to marry Josh off as a teenager so that he would have an outlet for his sexual desires (a.k.a the poor girl he would have married) and wouldn’t molest people anymore. This, of course, is also gross, and definitely NOT the solution to getting real, actual therapy for your child who has sexually abused others.

No wonder Amy King now wants nothing to do with Jim Bob or Michelle and refuses to let them around her own three-year-old son.

“If I can’t trust you, you’re not gonna get to know my child. I’m not going to sit there at a family dinner at Thanksgiving and pretend we’re a loving family. No, I’m scared to death of my child being around them,” she told Vanity Fair. “It’s my right to protect Daxton at all costs and if that means that I cannot have a relationship with that family, then that’s fine.”

Kudos to King and her mom for speaking out about the abuse in the Duggar home and shining a light on what was truly total darkness.