Jill Duggar Opens Up About Josh Duggar’s Child Molestation Scandal, ‘We Were Thrown Under The Bus’

Following what was perhaps one of the biggest scandals in reality TV last year, Jill Duggar Dillard and Jessa Duggar Seewald recently shared their thoughts about Josh Duggar’s molestation and cheating controversy. While said scandal uncovered a lot of secrets lurking in Josh’s past and eventually led to the cancelling of the hit reality show, 19 Kids and Counting, Jill stated that she felt the release of the police report “wasn’t right.”

According to Daily Mail, Jill’s comments were made during the airing of Jill & Jessa: Counting On. In the interview, Jill expressed her frustration at the timing of the reports and how she did not think they were released in a way that was beneficial to her family.

“The police report was released to the world, and I know that wasn’t right. Whoever released that, that wasn’t right,” Jill stated. “It shouldn’t have happened. We had moved on from there, so for this to be released right after Israel was born, and all these happy occasions in my life, and to be thrown under the bus was really, really hard.”

Apparently, the biggest issue Jill has with the release of the reports is that the entire Duggar family had already dealt with the issue of Josh’s past molestations and moved on with their lives. With the release of the original police reports, according to Jill, the media only dug up the past.

“Years ago, when that situation took place, um, it is not like, this is something that should be hidden and we don’t talk about it. No, we had to go through lots of different steps, complete with counseling,” Jill explained. “After that time, it was a really, really hard time on our family. You know that was 12 years ago and the healing process started shortly after that happened.”

As many will recall, the police reports in question revealed that Josh had molested five different girls when he was a teenager. The girls that were molested included Josh’s own sisters, Jill and Jessa.

According to People, Jessa agreed with her sister’s evaluation of the situation and stated that the release of the police reports was inappropriate. “There’s an expectation that this family doesn’t have any problems,” she said in the interview. “People go digging up old bones. It was so frustrating.”

Meanwhile, following the release of the police reports and cancellation of the show, it was further revealed that Josh had a secret addiction to pornography and that he had been cheating on his wife for several years. With that in mind, Jill Duggar admitted that Josh’s secrets were difficult to deal with.

“Knowing now what Joshua was hiding…it wasn’t right for him to let us speak our words without having the full knowledge of what he was hiding,” an emotional Jill related.

“We were devastated,” Jessa added. “Over the years Josh had worked really hard to repair our trust in him.”

Despite all of the revelations about Josh’s hidden life, Jill and her sister have decided to forgive him. In fact, the sisters believe that they had to forgive him in order to move on with their own lives.

“You know when something happens you go on with your life, you move on. We have chosen, Jessa and I can say that, we have chosen to forgive Josh and that is an important part of our own healing,” Jill stated. “If we do not forgive then we cannot move on.”

For their part, the sisters are trying their best to separate themselves from the controversy surrounding their brother, which is one reason they decided to tell all during the newest series.

The second installment of Jill & Jessa: Counting On is set to air Sunday night on TLC.

Tell us! What do you think of Jill Duggar’s revelations about her brother’s scandal? Let us know in the comments below.

[Image via The Duggar Family Blog]