As disgraced former 19 Kids and Counting star Josh Duggar fights for a fourth and final time for the chance to appeal his child sex crime conviction, a series of text messages Josh sent from jail following his 2021 conviction show the felonious fundie slamming his parents for prioritizing their public image over him and allegedly acting in ways that ultimately contributed to him winding up behind bars.
Among the flurry of fired-up messages obtained by People was a text from the 38-year-old father of seven to his parents, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, in which Josh claimed to be “very disappointed” in his mom and dad.
“I feel like you just don’t receive criticism or take admission for your own actions THAT HAVE DIRECTLY AFFECTED [sic] MY LIFE, including in this situation,” Josh wrote, just over a week after he was sentenced to more than 12 years in federal prison for receiving Child Sex Abuse Materials (CSAM).
Throughout other messages, Josh reportedly maintained his innocence to Michelle, while also blaming his former friend Caleb Williams for the CSAM images and videos discovered on the work computer of Josh’s now-shuttered car lot, Wholesale Motorcars. In one of those texts, Josh also told his mom (in all caps, natch) that he was not blaming her for his current situation, but suggested that she was blaming him.
“ … AND YOU DON’T EVEN KNOW THE TRUTH – YOU SAID THAT YOURSELF TODAY,” Josh wrote.
In another text, Josh accused his parents of acting in ways that had hurt him following his conviction, while also suggesting that they should be less concerned about making themselves “look good” to the public.
“I just think you don’t get it,” Josh wrote. “[Y]ou don’t understand how you have hurt me and you keep trying to make yourselves ‘look good’ instead of trying to be concerned about your responses to my charges or anything else in my life.”
Three months later, Josh sent a similar message to Michelle from behind bars in which he (rather eerily) cautioned her to make changes to ensure that other children– presumably his siblings– never find themselves in the situation he’s in.
“[T]he public statements and pr work to save shows and public images [I] feel were placed above family relationships … and still are to this day,” Josh wrote, before going on to ask that his mom “consider her role and change so that other children are not in the same situation later.”
(As you know, Josh’s younger brother Joseph Duggar was just arrested in March for allegedly sexually abusing a nine-year-old girl in 2020 during a vacation in Florida. )
Two days after sending the ominous message to Michelle, Josh followed-up by asking his mom if the unfair treatment he felt he was receiving from her was “maybe because of [her] own guilt?”
While Josh’s initial prison release date was slated for August 2032, his sentence has been extended three times– most recently in April. Josh is now set to be released from prison on February 2, 2033.
RELATED STORY: Joseph Duggar Demands to Question Investigators & Witnesses Who Spoke to Alleged Victim in His Child Molestation Case: Details
(Photos: TLC; Instagram)
8 Responses
Imagine saying “… just don’t receive criticism or take admission for your own actions” – whilst taking zero accountability for being a nonce
Right! Laughable
I have always thought that Josh and now Joseph are just the rotted tip of that particular iceberg. Almost all sex offenders who prey on children were themselves sexually abused so the likelihood that both Josh & Joseph, were at some point, victims is extremely high. Someone needs to look very, very long and very, very hard at *both* Jim Bob and Michelle. Statistically, he is the most likely original perpetrator and we already know that she was willing to silence and sacrifice her daughters to protect the male abusers who live in her home. I’m 100% sure she would betray *any and all* of her children to protect Jim Bob, which makes her just as guilty as the actual perpetrators.
Jim Bob’s dad was a known predator.
HE raped his sisters and four other little girls that we know of. THEY swept it under the rug, locked his sisters in a room at night to “protect them” from being sexually assaulted again by Josh and then sent him to have a stern talking to by some family friend preacher. They have made excuses for his sick ass constantly and they still do it. So they didn’t hurt Josh they hurt every single little girl that has been subjected to Josh and every single girl (and babies) that this sick fuck downloaded. They should have went to the police then and had his ass locked up and then & maybe none of this would have happened. They are shitty parents for sure but he is a sick and twisted pedophile. Pedophile trumps bad parenting.
The level of delusion in this man. He also said A LOT more in other emails (Google some recent articles about him), placing blame on his siblings and lashing out on them for not contacting him after he was jailed…yes really.
However, I do agree that Michelle and JB are more concerned about bad PR than their children. Just read Jill’s book for proof.
They also never got Josh the help he needed as child, never set proper boundaries with their children, and actively discouraged his victims from seeking therapy (read Jill’s book).
Josh, however, is 100% responsible for the decisions he made as an adult.
There is no rehabbing child predators. They should remain in jail forever or maybe s*x assult/abuse of any kind should carry the d**th penalty.
this might be controversial to say but it’s both josh and especially his parents faults for his current predicament. of course sleazy josh should’ve never done any of the horrible stuff he’s done no matter what’s happened to him but jim bob and michelle are also at fault for not holding him accountable and not getting him real help when the first incident happened, and josh had to have learned that type of behavior from somewhere especially as young as he was. they’re at fault for not protecting all of their children