“We were able to create joy during a hard time and that was a parenting win for me.”
Amy Duggar King wasn’t like her cousins. She was an only child and she didn’t have to follow the same rules, many of which she found “ridiculous.”
But in an interview with Nick Viall on his podcast “The Viall Files,” Amy opened up about her relationship with her 19 cousins and what the Duggar family was really like.
Amy’s mom, Deanna Duggar, is Jim Bob Duggar’s sister. But despite Jim Bob and who wife Michelle Duggar’s family rules, Deanna and her ex-husband, Terry Jordan weren’t called to the same lifestyle.
“I just grew up, my mom and dad had one child. They were fine with that. They were fulfilled,” Amy explained, adding that her family’s fame happened organically.
“It started off with a newspaper clipping,” Amy shared. “It had my uncle who was in politics. And like six of his kids were like little ducklings behind him walking to the capital. And someone took a picture of it and said, like, ‘Who is this family?’”
From there, Jim Bob and Michelle’s family were the subjects of a documentary before TLC called. “So it was just one of those things where it just kind of happened organically. And I wanted honestly nothing to do with it because I'm not really like them,” Amy continued.
And it was Amy’s very different lifestyle and her candid reactions to the rules Jim Bob and Michelle put in place for their own children that caught producers attention.
Yet despite their different lifestyles, Amy admitted that at that time in her life, she had her uncle and his picturesque, perfect family “on a pedestal.”
“They were the epitome of perfect,” Amy said. “I'm not even kidding. The mom never screamed or yelled or got anxious or annoyed or needed a time out from being a mom. The dad was always providing kind, really fun, hands-on with the kids. The kids were always the kindest to each other.”
“It was like going back to black and white TV,” Amy explained, adding that she talks about her uncle and his family with both a “sense of fear” and a “sense of freedom.”
“There’s a target on my back, I’m sure.”
Amy then detailed the moments that caused the image she had of her family to begin to crack.
“Josh (Duggar) had an old computer and my dad bought it. I was home one day and looking through it and learning about the new MacBook back in the day,” Amy told Viall. “On it said, ‘Josh's files.’ And I was like, ‘Huh.’”
“And so I clicked on it thinking, like, you know, you forgot to delete it. And thousands of pornographic images were on there,” Amy explained. “And so here's this perfect son who smiles on cue and his hair is neatly gelled and all of these things. And yet he had kind of a big secret, you know, a different, something he was really struggling with, clearly, it's not a crime, but at the same time, it just shows that like, mm, sometimes off.”
Amy, who was known as “Crazy Cousin Amy” to her family, confirmed that of the images she discovered none of them were illegal.
Amy later told her mom about the discovery, who then told Josh’s father, Jim Bob. “I was quickly dismissed,” Amy continued.
Josh’s parents were quick to share excuses as to why such photos were on the computer that once belonged to Josh. “I was told that, ‘Amy, there's no way that's my son's files. He would never look at such imagery.’”
Years later, Josh was found guilty of receiving and possessing material depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit activity on December 9, 2021. In May 2022, he was sentenced to more than 12 years in prison.
Despite the guilty verdict, Josh and his family maintains his innocence.
However, Amy called the moment Josh was found guilty of his crimes as a “full circle moment.”
Amy said she doesn’t believe her uncle was always “corrupt” but that when he joined the IBLP, he was looking for the structure he didn’t have growing up. Amy explained that her childhood mimicked the childhood Jim Bob and Deanna were subject to, which consisted of a lot of “screaming, yelling” and dysfunction.
She also believes Josh did seek help from his parents, but he did so at the height of their fame, causing Jim Bob to sweep his son’s behavior under the rug.
“I think because money does that to almost anyone if you don't keep it in check, right? And so if you, just all the perks that were coming in and the invites and the tickets and the this and the first class tickets and all the things that you're invited to, Reality TV isn't real, but I think it can really warp your mind. I really think it can,” Amy explained.
“So I think the money became like his fascination and then it just kept on growing and growing and growing,” she added of her uncle.
As a result, Amy admitted she still has a “very small amount” of grace for Josh. “I feel like he did try to get help,” Amy continued. “I feel like he did say like, ‘hey, I have a problem, someone help me.’ And no one came to his rescue.”
Despite their history, however, Amy says all of her cousins still spend time with their parents. But as far as her opinion of her family goes, Amy said, “My opinion of them is that I find it to be a very unhealthy family toxic pattern that's just going to continue and continue and continue.”
Amy, who is still close with Jill Duggar Dillard, one of the sisters Josh victimized as a teenager, revealed if it is hard for her to see Jill still spending time with her parents.
“So Jill has done a lot of counseling, and I'm not going to really speak for her, but I will tell you, she's done a lot of counseling. So she's healed from a lot. And I will tell you that she's a strong girl.
So she loves her brothers and sisters. She loves her mom. I think it's kind of difficult at times to be over there, but she limits her time. But yeah, I mean, there's no amosity or anything like that between Jill and I at all. It's just more of like, hey, that's your decision. But I realize that's like your immediate family. It's not really mine. So I don't have to invite that back into my life.”
