1. “He said he was just curious about girls”
MEGYN KELLY: This is a young boy who has come to you with shocking information. What did you say? I mean, how did you respond to him? What was that like, that exchange?
MICHELLE. DUGGAR: There was so much grief in our hearts. I think as parents we felt, we’re failures. You know, here we tried to raise our kids to do what’s right, to know what’s right. And yet one of our children made some really bad choices, and I think as a parent, we were just — we were devastated.
KELLY: Did he explain why? I mean, was that a question that you asked?
JIM BOB DUGGAR: He said he was just curious about girls, and he had gone in and just basically touched them over their clothes while they were sleeping. They didn’t even know he had done it. And so we went, and the first thing was to protect the girls.
2. “That’s when we pulled him out of the house”
KELLY: Did legal ever pop into your mind? Like we may have legal obligations?
J. B. DUGGAR: You know, what? As parents you’re not mandatory reporters. The law allows for parents to do what they think is best for their child. And so we got him out of the home, and we sent him down to this place, and that was really probably the best decision we made through this whole process, because it was at that place — this was the first time Josh has been out of the home.
KELLY: He was 15 at this point.
J. B. DUGGAR: He had just turned 15. And it was that the point that he came into himself, and God really worked in his life. As a matter of fact, he broke. And he went and asked God to forgive him. He went back and asked those who he had offended to forgive him. But we felt like the last jurisdiction of who did to do make things right with was the law.
KELLY: And we’ll going to get to that in one second. The subsequent incident after the first one involved daughters who were awake, at least a couple of them?
J. B. DUGGAR: There was a couple, yes. And they didn’t really understand, though, what happened.
KELLY: Yes. What –
M. DUGGAR: It was more his heart, his intent. He knew that it was wrong. But they weren’t even aware. They were like, you know, it wasn’t – - to them they didn’t probably even understand that it was an improper touch.
KELLY: I know that the ultimate one before you really got help involved a very young daughter, and I’ll avoid the age because I don’t want to identify anyone specifically, but a single digit. I mean, what was that like for you to hear? You know, one, you must have thought for some time this is a pubescent boy, I don’t know what he’s going through, but he’s testing. But when it moves to a young daughter –
J. B. DUGGAR: Right. At that point, that’s when we pulled him out of the house and we said, he can’t be here. And so, we pulled him out and then, he went through working with that man –
KELLY: Yes. He goes through counseling.
J. B. DUGGAR: Yes.
KELLY: And then when he was done with the counseling, this is not like a licensed therapist, it’s somebody, a Christian-based –
J. B. DUGGAR: Christian based. But I’ll tell you why.
3. “The ray of hope was that Josh had come and told us and his heart was still soft.”
KELLY: Did it feel at all like a “Sophie’s Choice,” you know, I have to protect my daughters at the expense of my son or vice versa?
J. B. DUGGAR: You know, I think it was a situation where we felt like our son’s heart had gone astray. I think Jesus shared a story about he had a hundred sheep and one went astray, and there he was. He took care of the 99 but he also went after the one that went astray. And so, as parents we still loved Josh and we love our other ones, but we’re going to protect those that are in our hands, but also we’re going to make sure Josh doesn’t make any wrong choices.
M. DUGGAR: It doesn’t mean that you’re not a good shepherd. Jesus is a good shepherd but he went after that one that went astray. And so I think as parents we were trying to do the best that we knew how to help this one and protect these. And I feel like through that, as we came to that point where, you know, Josh shared, you know, improperly touching a young one, we were devastated and we said, we’ve got to send him out of the home. He has got to go and seek counsel and get help.
KELLY: Did you feel –
M. DUGGAR: And I mean, it was like that evening when they left and took him that same day, he just was weeping and shared immediately what he had done. And so, we were weeping and the little one was like, what’s wrong? Why are daddy and Josh leaving? And as we’re all weeping, the next day and for days and days I was saying, you know, Josh has done some very bad things, and he’s very sorry.
J. B. DUGGAR: Yes. But I was thankful. The ray of hope was that Josh had come and told us and his heart was still soft. Because we wouldn’t have known about any of these things if he hadn’t come and told us.