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Josh Duggar’s Brothers Tell Reality Star, ‘I Don’t Want To Be Like You Anymore’: Duggar Family Explains Life Since Learning ‘The Reality’ About Josh [Video]

By Maat van Uitert
Published on: 15:42 PST, Dec 11, 2015

Josh Duggar’s family has finally started to break their silence about the scandals that have ripped their family apart. In new clips for Jill & Jessa: Counting On, more members of the Duggar clan have come forward to reveal their feelings about Josh Duggar and his terrible actions that pulled the 19 Kids And Counting family off the air, reports Page Six.

Two brothers of Josh, John-David and Joseph, have confessed that they’re “heartbroken” over the Josh Duggar scandals, and are reeling from revelations that they don’t know their brother at all. In a new clip from Jill & Jessa: Counting On, Josh-David reveals that after the news broke that Josh Duggar molested five girls when he was underage himself, he and his family “got word of a second thing that we had no clue about,” reports Page Six.

It’s well understood that the Duggar family all knew about Josh’s past, including his wife, Anna. When the story broke about Josh molesting several girls, two of whom were his sisters Jill and Jessa, Anna quickly broke her silence. In a statement, Anna revealed that she knew all about Josh and his past behavior. But since he had sought forgiveness from God and changed, Duggar still felt comfortable marrying Josh.

Nobody in the Duggar family knew, however, that Josh also had been cheating on Anna, and had not one, but two secret accounts with the infidelity site Ashley Madison. In the new clip for Jill & Jessa: Counting On, John-David reveals that the news “was a little more of a shock probably than the first stuff coming out,” according to Page Six.

Similarly, Joseph, a second brother of Josh Duggar, explained that “I don’t think there’s any way any of us would have known that my brother was living such a secret life.”

The news that Josh cheated on his wife “broke my heart,” John-David confessed, explaining that Josh Duggar’s hypocrisy hurt more than anything else. When “somebody you respect the most is willing to get up and proclaim what we believe as Christians, about being true to your wife, you’d never think that that’s the person who’s involved in it.”

Both brothers feel they lost a hero when Josh Duggar’s true personality was revealed. In the clip, Josh’s brother explained that he “always wanted to be like [Josh].” After the news about the Ashley Madison accounts broke, however, “one of the toughest things I had to tell [Josh] was, I don’t want to be like you anymore,” John-David confessed.

Because Josh failed his family, John-David Duggar now feels he needs to work harder as a role model to show his siblings that they don’t need to live like Josh. Like Josh, Duggar explained that he has “a whole bunch of younger siblings looking up to me, and I’ve got to be an example to them.”

Duggar confessed that it’s “a big load” to be a better example to his younger siblings than Josh was to him. “It’s a big weight upon me now,” Duggar revealed, as a video clip in the background shows Josh Duggar’s younger siblings playing at a family gathering.

In another newly released clip promoting Jill And Jessa: Counting On, one of Josh Duggar’s sisters, Jinger Duggar, tearfully confesses how she’s handled the scandals. After the molestation scandals subsided, “our faces weren’t on the magazine covers anymore, we could go to the grocery store, and it was kind of like a normal life,” Jinger recalls.

But that brief peace was shattered, reports Us, when Jinger Duggar “got word that something new had came out.” The secrets Josh had been hiding were “so unreal” that Duggar had trouble believing it. Jinger confessed that she and her family “still have trouble comprehending it today,” and is still reeling from “the reality of this person we thought we knew.”

Explaining that they “still love” Josh, the Duggar family has had a hard time healing from “the hard pain that [Josh has] caused,” reports Us.

Since revealing the clips for Jill & Jessa: Counting On, TLC has come under some heat for allowing the Duggars back on air after cancelling 19 Kids And Counting after the Josh Duggar scandals broke. In particular, TLC has been accused of trying to get the Duggar family back on mainstream air despite revelations that the conservative Christian family has been hiding family skeletons.

Since taking Josh and the rest of the Duggar clan off the air, TLC has reportedly lost about $20 million, and the Duggar family has lost $25 million in endorsement deals, speaking engagements, and salaries from starring in the now-defunct hit television show.

[Image via Instagram]

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