If you haven't heard of the massive Duggar Family, then you might be a pop culture novice.
This giant family was the star of one of TLC's most popular shows of all time: 19 Kids and
Counting, from 2008 to 2015.
Jim Bob Duggar and his wife Michelle are members of an religious and conservative community
that values modesty, obeying the patriarch as head of a family, and above all else, having
lots and lots of children.
But despite the family's wholesome face, they've been questioned in the media for their anti-gay,
"values voter" views.
And the scandals surrounding their busy home life have dominated the news feeds for a while
now.
Here's the untold truth of the Duggar family.
"17 Kids and Counting"
When the reality show first premiered on TLC in 2008 it had a different name.
Why?
Because little Jordyn-Grace and baby Josie were still just twinkles in Jim Bob's eyes.
These two children's filmed entrance to the world provided a lot of material for good
reality TV.
Eventually what was once 17 Kids, became 18 Kids, and you know the rest.
Will Jim Bob and Michelle welcome any more kids into their family?
This mom in her late forties sought fertility counseling to assess the possibility of even
more little Jim Bobs or Michelles, but was told that conception would be highly unlikely.
You'd think she'd be relieved because ...
"You know, I'm never gonna get out of diapers and dishes and I'm never gonna catch up with
the laundry"
But nope.
At the age of 45, when Michelle Duggar announced that the family would soon welcome baby number
20, the clan was all smiles.
Tragically, Michelle suffered a miscarriage.
What stirred up controversy surrounding this sad event was the family's decision to name,
photograph, and have a full funeral service for the would-be twentieth Duggar.
They even published a photo of the stillborn for all the world to see.
The Js
You may have noticed that all 19 of the Duggar offspring have been given first names that
start with the letter 'J.', and the inspiration came from the Bible, of course.
They named their first son Joshua, and things took off from there.
A set of twins came next.
John was another biblical name, and wanting to name the girl twin Ana, after a family
member, the parents decided to add a J in front "for honor."
They stuck with the custom into perpetuity, stating that they didn't want any future kids
to be jealous that they weren't part of the J tradition.
House of Representatives heritage
Long before the fame, family patriarch Jim Bob Duggar served his state of Arkansas as
a House Representative.
He ran on an anti-abortion, family values platform, and served for one term in the early
2000s, before challenging the Arkansas incumbent for his senate seat and losing in 2002.
Conservative activism
In 2013, eldest son Josh Duggar followed in his father's politically conservative footsteps,
and accepted a position with "anti-gay rights" group, the Family Research Council.
The FRC has been "classified as an anti-gay hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center,
and has a long history of attacking the LGBT community and their friends, family and allies."
Similarly, Josh's mother, and family matriarch Michelle Duggar famously narrated a political
robocall that went out to Arkansas voters urging them to oppose legislation meant to
protect human rights.
Arkansas is unlike most of the rest of the nation in that it is still legal for a person
to be fired from their job for being gay, or be kicked out of their housing for being
transgender.
Michelle's opinion was that new laws to protect these groups should be blocked.
Scandal
In May, 2015 In Touch broke the story that the eldest boy, Joshua Duggar, had been investigated
for — and admitted to — molesting five underage girls when he was a teenager.
More than one of the girls were reportedly his sisters.
The magazine was able to access a hidden police report from 2006 via a Freedom of Information
Act request that detailed the incidents.
But these abuses may never have come to light if a family friend hadn't written notes about
Josh's actions, stashed them in a book, and then forgetfully lent the book to a friend
who discovered the letter and notified police in 2006.
The family and certain members of their religious community reportedly knew about the attacks
that occurred, but did not immediately alert authorities.
Rather than be tried by law enforcement, Jim Bob instead "met with the elders of [his]
church and told them what was going on."
"He had just turned 14 and he said that he had actually improperly touched some of our
daughters."
Josh was reportedly sent to a Christian Program where he would supposedly undergo, quote,
"hard physical work and counseling."
However, as was also uncovered in the police reports, Michelle Duggar later admitted to
police that he had merely been sent to stay with a family friend to help him with his
construction business.
Jim Bob had also blocked police requests to interview Josh.
Although the investigation had to be abandoned due to the statute of limitations, the Duggar
family and TLC became the focus of a media frenzy once word got out about Josh's deviant
behavior and how his family tried to cover it all up.
Ashley Madison and addiction
Another shocking development hit the headlines just a few weeks after Josh's initial scandal.
The massive hack of AshleyMadison.com, the notorious extramarital affair hookup website,
revealed that his name and address was also associated with two separate monthly "affair
guaranteed" level accounts, for which he'd paid almost a thousand dollars.
Josh, who had proposed to and married his wife on the show, remained mum for a few weeks,
and then posted a public apology on his mother Michelle's popular blog.
His apology included the following statement: "While espousing faith and family values,
I have secretly over the last several years been viewing pornography on the internet and
this became a secret addiction and I became unfaithful to my wife."
And the twists keep coming...
Home schooling
It's common knowledge that the Duggars have long chosen to homeschool their kids.
But did you know that the Christian curriculum they follow has its own share of abuse scandals?
Gawker reported in 2015 that the family adheres to a homeschooling program from the Advanced
Training Institute, which is "a Bible-based homeschooling program run by alleged cult
figurehead Bill Gothard."
Gothard himself has been accused of improper advances on young girls, but that's not where
the creepiness ends.
The curriculum itself has an entire section on what to do when an older male child sexually
abuses a younger child of the same family.
One such "lesson" describes a hypothetical situation, where parents discover that "an
older brother was guilty of sexually abusing younger ones in his family."
It also offers a bunch of religiously focused questions parents should ask the brother after
he's repented.
The similarities between this hypothetical and what actually happened are too eerie to
ignore...
Cancellation
Amid all the pressure coming from the public and from other media outlets, in July 2015,
TLC announced that it would no longer air 19 Kids and Counting.
In their press release statement the network stated they were "concerned for the victims
in this situation, including the Duggar family."
In light of criticism that the network continued to air new episodes of 19 Kids and Counting
for over a year after the scandal was unearthed, and was seemingly using the molestation case
as a ratings booster, TLC worked with "victims' rights and advocacy organizations" to produce
a 60 minute documentary about victims of abuse.
However, since this documentary also starred the Duggars, it did little to satisfy the
public's thirst for justice or stop the deluge of tabloid interest in the family.
Spinning off
It seems both TLC and the Duggars have seen their way clear to reestablishing their high
ratings relationship without involving the admitted sexual predator, Joshua Duggar.
"The devil took his best shot and he tried to take our whole family down."
Two of the older daughters, Jill and Jessa, were both Joshua's victims in the past, but
now have their own husbands and children.
They're now the stars of a new TLC reality show, Jill and Jessa Counting On.
So if you haven't heard enough from this controversial family, you can still get your fix.
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