Everything Amy Duggar’s new book reveals about her cousin Josh Duggar

Amy Duggar King Highlighting her relationship with her cousin Josh Duggar – Before and after his many scandals – in her new book, Holy disruptor.

Before the memoir was released on Tuesday, October 14, Amy, 39, Open exclusively for Us Weekly On how she was affected by Josh’s 2015 harassment scandal and his 2021 arrest.

“When I was growing up, we had a lot of fun,” Amy said. we. “He was a fun kid. There (were) all kinds of pranks and jokes. … We just had this connection.”

Noting that the pair have “stayed very much in touch” over the years, Amy revealed that Josh, 37, texted her just weeks before he was arrested for receiving and possessing child sexual abuse material in 2021. He is currently in prison after being sentenced to more than 12 years behind bars.

When asked if she had spoken to Josh at all since his arrest, Amy responded we Quick number. “These are the limits I will never cross,” she insisted. “Now that I have a child, now that I know his beauty and innocence, I will do everything in my power to talk about how to protect children, and those are boundaries I will never cross.”

Scroll down to see everything Amy wrote about Josh in her memoir, available now:

They grow up together

Amy recalled how much she “loved” Josh when they were children, writing, “I grew up with Josh because my mother, Diana, is Jim Bob’s only sister, and our families were close.”

The cousins ​​would walk to each other’s houses to play. “It was so much fun, the kids were kids and loving life, staying out until dinner time,” Amy wrote. “Josh always made me laugh, and we got along great. We had a strong relationship, and we loved to tease each other.”

Find the evidence

Before news of Josh’s scandal broke in 2015, Amy found “some unexpected computer files” on an old device her father had bought from Josh — more specifically, “thousands of pornographic photos and videos of both women and men.”

Amy was “disgusted” by the “overwhelming evidence” of “addiction” and possible “mental problems”, but also admitted there was a “strange sense of relief knowing Josh wasn’t a robot”.

Although she tried to discuss the situation with her extended family, she was “swept under the rug, buried under layers of silence and denial.”

Family nightmare

After the computer incident, Amy experiences her worst “nightmare” while at Walmart. She spotted a magazine cover about “serious sexual assault allegations against my beloved cousin Josh” — and everything changed.

“This can’t be my family, the people I knew and loved and whose house I visited countless times in my life,” she recalled thinking, saying her “life was turned upside down” when she realized that “the person I once looked up to” was living “a lie.”

Confrontation

As the world learned about Josh Harassment scandalAmy found herself “on a mission” to give him a piece of her mind. She went to her cousins’ house and found Josh with his wife, Anna, in a nearby RV.

Amy “demanded to know how long his abusive behavior had continued.” But Josh remained calm. Then she shouted, “Josh, how come you never did anything to me?”

According to Amy, Josh replied, “I knew better.” She recalled that he gave her “the kind of smile that sent shivers down my spine.”

In her interview with weAmy remembered what was going through her head when she decided to confront her cousin. “When I was driving there, I said to myself, ‘I’m tired of the lies, I’m tired of people telling half-truths and not saying what’s really going on.’ … I didn’t know what I was going to do, okay? I had no idea, but I said to myself, ‘I’m going to figure something out,’” she said, noting that she felt “justifiably angry.”

The fifth victim

While many of the girls Josh molested were his sisters, there was a fifth victim who was not connected to the Duggar family. Amy revealed in her book that she had contacted the unnamed person, who was “moving on and preparing for a quieter life.”

talking to we Before the memoir’s release, Amy spoke candidly about why she felt the way she felt Forced to have a conversation With the fifth victim, she explained: “Before I wrote anything in my book about any of the scandals of anything that happened, I wanted to reach out to her and show my respect to her, because she did a great job of keeping quiet. … I didn’t want to do anything that would further traumatize her.”

Amy said we She was “humbled and grateful” to have the woman’s blessing to be included in the book. “I don’t know if she’s ever gotten a phone call,” Amy added.

Not getting help

Amy claimed that Josh’s father, Jim Bob, “did almost nothing” to help his son in the wake of the 2015 scandal. “In my opinion, Josh wasn’t remorseful for what he did, he was sorry that he got caught. That made it even more difficult to watch,” Amy wrote.

Although Josh was sent “several times to the IBLP correction program,” he was “surrounded by similarly troubled people” in that environment.

Lies and arrest

Years after the first scandal, “more rumours” began to swirl about Josh – and Amy wanted “the truth”. She and her husband contacted Jim Bob, who “dismissed” their concerns.

Eventually, however, the Department of Homeland Security came to Amy’s house and asked her “about the computer—the one I told Uncle Jim Bob years ago that had Josh’s files on it.”

Amy is “devastated” after learning What her cousin didDescribing “a level of disrespect and betrayal that I have never witnessed before.”

After his 2021 arrest, Amy realized that “Josh has clearly been living a sad and disgusting double life for a very long time.”