It’s been a week since the shocking arrest of Joseph Duggar for alleged lewd and lascivious behavior involving unlawful sexual activity with a minor, and very few members of the Duggar Family have spoken out about it. On Wednesday, however, Joe’s sister Jinger and her husband Jeremy Vuolo addressed the situation on their podcast.
In a short episode of their Jinger & Jeremy Podcast, Jinger— who was very close to Joe and only 13 months older than him— expressed the absolute shock and devastation she felt when she heard the news about Joe’s arrest. Jeremy also briefly mentioned the pending criminal charges Joe (as well as his wife Kendra) are facing in Arkansas for child endangerment and false imprisonment.
“I did not think that my heart could break like it has this week,” a visibly upset Jinger stated.
“The pain and heartbreak that we’ve had over this and just thinking about how it’s affected so many,” she continued. “Yeah, it’s just unthinkable. It’s so hard and painful on many levels. It’s hard. I don’t even have words. All we can do in those moments is just cry out to God and ask him to sustain us, to give help.”
“It’s been a really difficult week for us to process and think through and pray through this,” Jeremy added. “… This was devastating news to hear when we got the news last week.”
Jinger went on to state that, although she has been through something like this before (when her eldest brother Josh was convicted in 2021 of receiving child sex abuse materials, a crime he is currently in prison for), she was still hurt and shocked by Joe’s arrest and alleged crimes.
“You can’t be prepared for news like this, even though we’ve experienced something very similar before with one of my other siblings who made unthinkable choices and decisions that have affected all of us,” she said. “Yet the pain and hurt that’s caused to us, but then to so many others is just so hard.”
Jeremy then commended the alleged victim for coming forward.
(As The Ashley previously reported, a now-14-year-old female had disclosed in a forensic interview last week several incidents involving Joseph that allegedly occurred during a 2020 family vacation in Florida, when the girl was nine years old. She claimed that Joseph asked her repeatedly to sit on his lap during the vacation, as well as next to him on a couch, and then covered them with a blanket. She went on to state that Joseph “manipulated” her underwear and “grazed her genitals,” and continued to rub his hands on her thighs. Joe reportedly confessed when confronted by the victim’s dad and police.)
“Thinking about the victim who was brave enough to share her story has been heartbreaking,” Jeremy said. “Just the effect on that young person’s life is unimaginable. And then to see the ripple effect of that horrific crime just across the board, it just has so many damaging rippling effects.
“I think that’s been for me, the forefront of my mind is just thinking, you know, the horror of a crime like that, affecting so many for so many years. It’s just, it’s devastating to think about,” Jeremy said, adding that he and Jinger are praying for the victim and everyone affected.
(Jinger and some of her sisters experienced a similar situation in their childhood after they were molested by their brother Josh. The molestations became public in 2015 when it was exposed by a tabloid— an event that the Duggar girls have stated retraumatized them.)
“It’s easy just to see the darkness,” Jeremy said. “But yeah, it’s just really left us in a place of asking the Lord to be kind, to be merciful, asking the Lord to expose truth that’s been hidden, praying for wisdom for the officials who are going to, in the months and years ahead, seek to pursue earthly justice so that this doesn’t happen to other people.”
Jeremy stated that he feels particularly bad for the children involved. (In addition to the alleged victim and her family, Joe and Kendra share four young children.)
“The children especially, you just think about how this affects their lives,” he said.
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Jeremy stated that he and Jinger feel “helpless,” but know that “the Lord hears our prayers in that.”
Besides Jinger, only three of Joe’s 18 siblings have spoken out since his arrest. (Ironically, one of those siblings was Josh, his jailbird brother, who issued a statement from prison via his attorney.) Joe’s sister Jessa Duggar Seewald posted a statement but quickly deleted it on the day that it was announced that Joe was also being charged with child endangerment/false imprisonment, along with Kendra.
Jill Duggar Dillard and her husband Derick were the first to issue a statement about Joe’s arrest. The couple wrote that they found out about Joe’s arrest from the media like everyone else. They also made it clear that they do not support Joe.
“We strongly condemn abuse,” the Dillards’ statement reads. “We support the rule of law and hope that justice will be achieved. Our hearts go out to the innocent juvenile victim of this unspeakable crime and her family.”
As of press time, Joe is sitting in the Washington County Jail in Arkansas, awaiting extradition to Florida, where he will answer to the child molestation charges he’s facing there. He is due back in court in Arkansas in April to face the child endangerment and false imprisonment charges.
You can watch Jinger and Jeremy’s full statement below.
(Photos: YouTube; Washington County Sheriff’s Office; TLC)
