Did Jessa Duggar Lie About Molestation Scandal During Fox News Interview?

Jessa Duggar is being accused of telling a little white lie during her Fox News interview. However, did the 19 Kids and Counting star really fudge the truth when she was talking to Megyn Kelly about the Josh Duggar molestation scandal?

During the interview, Jessa Duggar admitted that she was one of Josh’s victims, but she did her best to convince viewers that what Josh did to her was no big deal and that she and her family have long since moved on. According to RadarOnline, Jessa also tried to claim that the family didn’t sign on for their TLC show while they were still dealing with the aftermath of Josh Duggar’s sexual abuse of his siblings. According to Jessa Duggar, the Duggars made sure that the matter was far behind them before sharing their lives on TV.

“Whenever we started the TV show, the reality show it was five years after all of this,” Jessa told Fox News host Megyn Kelly. “We had dealt with it as a family. We had moved on.”

This comment was in response to a question Megyn Kelly asked about the Duggars’ decision to invite cameras into their home. She asked Jessa Duggar if there was “any hesitation” when the Duggars decided to put their family on TV, or if they were concerned that their family’s secret “would come out” someday.

According to the police report obtained by In Touch Weekly, Josh Duggar committed seven known acts of molestation, and four of his five victims were his own sisters. The last recorded abuse took place in March 2003, which just happens to be the same year that the Discovery Health Channel approached the Duggars to film the 14 Children and Pregnant Again! TV special. On his personal website, Josh Duggar writes about when Discovery producers contacted his family, and a Washington Post timeline of events points out that the first of many Duggar documentary specials aired in 2004.

If you carefully read the sneaky way Jessa Duggar worded her response to Megyn Kelly’s question, you’ll see that she says her family started filming their “reality show” five years after Josh Duggar’s last recorded act of sexual molestation. She can easily claim that she wasn’t lying because she was referencing the first episode of 17 Kids and Counting that aired in 2008, not the 2004 14 Children and Pregnant Again! TV documentary. As the Duggar clan continued to grow, her family’s TLC series would later be renamed 18 Kids and Counting then 19 Kids and Counting.

As In Touch Weekly points out, Jessa made some comments that were far worse than her sly line about the molestation timeline. While chatting to Megyn Kelly about what Josh Duggar did to her, she tried to downplay his actions by describing his “inappropriate touching” as “mild” and “subtle.”

“None of the victims were aware of what happened until Joshua confessed,” Jessa said. “The extent of it was mild – inappropriate touching on fully clothed victims, most of it while [the] girls were sleeping… In the situations where it happened and the girls were awake they weren’t aware of what was happening. It was very subtle.”

However, most people probably wouldn’t agree that there’s anything “subtle” or “mild” about a 15-year-old boy fondling his five-year-old sister, and it’s possible that Josh’s other victims also wouldn’t agree with Jessa’s words. According to the police report, Josh’s youngest victim was sitting in her brother’s lap expecting him to read her a story when he fondled “her breasts and vaginal area.” This was the March 2003 incident mentioned above, meaning that the incident was very fresh on the Duggars’ minds when they first agreed to share their lives on TV. Perhaps they thought that the TLC camera crew would work as another “safeguard” against incestuous sexual molestation.

Even though the Duggar family continues to be criticized, 19 Kids and Counting has not been cancelled. In fact, as the Inquisitr previously reported, one insider made it sound like the network is pretty determined to save its most lucrative show.

Do you think Jessa Duggar was intentionally trying to mislead fans with the way she responded to Megyn’s question?

[Image via Duggar Family Instagram]