Jessa Duggar keeps trying to move on from the Josh Duggar sexual molestation scandal by focusing on her pregnancy. However, th e 19 Kids and Counting star is finding out that it’s not going to be easy to leave the past behind, and she may be forced to continue defending the older brother who sexually abused her.
According to Us Weekly , Jessa Duggar recently let her Instagram followers know that she’s currently 22 weeks along in her pregnancy. As you can see, the 19 Kids and Counting star’s baby bump is really starting to pop.
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Jessa and her husband, Ben Seewald, already know the sex of their baby. However, they’re choosing to keep it a secret for now, and this decision could be good news for 19 Kids and Counting fans — perhaps Jessa and Ben know that their TLC show hasn’t been canceled, so they’re saving their gender reveal for TV.
The future of 19 Kids and Counting is in jeopardy because of the shocking revelation that Josh Duggar molested four of his younger sisters and another girl. Jessa Duggar was one of Josh’s victims, but she recently decided to defend rather than condemn her brother. During a Fox News interview with Megyn Kelly, she downplayed what Josh did to her by saying that he shouldn’t be considered a child molester.
“I do want to speak up in his defense against people who are calling him a child molester or a pedophile or a rapist, some people are saying,” Jessa said, according to E! News . “I’m like that is so overboard and a lie really, I mean people get mad at me for saying that but I can say this because I was one of the victims.”
Jessa went on to describe her brother’s actions as “mild,” and she defended Josh by saying that he was going through puberty when the molestation took place.
“Like in Josh’s case, he was a boy, a young boy in puberty and a little too curious about girls. And that got him into to some trouble. And he made some bad choices, but really the extent of it was mild, inappropriate touching, on fully clothed victims, most of it while girls were sleeping.”
Jessa Duggar was obviously trying to help her older brother by agreeing to talk to Megyn Kelly, but it’s possible that her efforts to minimize her brother’s actions felt like an insult to Josh Duggar’s fifth victim. This unnamed girl wasn’t a member of the Duggar family, so she didn’t go on to become the star of a successful reality show after she forgave Josh and tried to move on with her life. This victim has been forced to watch the Duggars enjoy their fame and fortune while maintaining her silence, and she’s probably realized that 19 Kids and Counting wouldn’t exist if the Duggars’ dark secret had come out years ago.
As the Inquisitr previously reported, Josh Duggar’s fifth victim was a babysitter who wasn’t a member of the Duggar family. No criminal charges were filed against Josh at the time her sexual molestation took place, and it’s too late for Josh to be charged with a crime. However, the non-family victim has reportedly decided to file a civil suit against Josh and his parents.
Legal experts told InTouch Weekly that “the victim still has the right to sue under Arkansas Code Annotated Section 16-56-130, which allows for a civil action when a sexual abuse victim start to experience the effects of the abuse years later.”
The fifth victim will likely claim that the Duggars’ Fox News interviews caused her to suffer recent emotional damage. The fifth victim is reportedly mortified that she’s being forced to “relive this nightmare all over again,” and she’s very upset that the Duggars decided to “go on TV and whitewash what happened.”
Jessa Duggar did a lot of the whitewashing during her Fox News interview, but the unnamed victim is suing Josh and his parents, not her fellow victims. However, it’s possible that Jessa will be subpoenaed to testify as witness during the court proceedings.
Do you think Jessa Duggar’s intense defense of Josh played a part in the fifth victim’s decision to sue the stars of 19 Kids and Counting ?
[Image credit: Jessa Duggar /Instagram]