Josh Duggar’s Parents and Sisters – who were his Victims – Continue to Defend him

By Cheri Cheng - 04 Jun '15 12:38PM
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Josh Duggar's parents, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, have continued to defend their son after his sexual molestation case surfaced. In the family's interviews with FOX News, Josh's sisters, Jill Dillard and Jessa Seewald, who were victims, also defended their brother's actions.

"I think, as parents, we felt, 'We're failures,'" Michelle said in the first part of the interviews. "We've tried to raise our kids to do what's right - to know what's right - and yet one of our children made some really bad choices and I think, as a parent, just . . . we were devastated."

According to the police report published by In Touch, Josh, 27, sexually groped five minor girls' breasts and genital areas when he was a teenager. Four of the victims were his sisters and one was a family friend.

Based on the files, Josh's parents waited roughly a year to notify the police of his actions. His case, however, fell through due to complications.

In the second part of the interviews, the two sisters talked about the media's attention.

"We're victims. They [the media] can't do this to us," Dillard said.

Seewald added, "The system that was set up to protect kids, both those who make stupid mistakes or have problems like this in their life and the ones that are affected by those choices. It's greatly failed... "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. 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."

Josh, his wife, Anna, and his parents have all released statements addressing the report. They have stated that the unfortunate incident brought them closer to god.

In the interviews, Jim Bob revealed that he educated his children about wrong versus right touch.

"We also talked to our daughters and reminded them about wrong and right touch and about if anybody ever touched you in a wrong way for you to come and tell your mom immediately," He said before claiming that their daughters were not aware of what happened to them since Josh would sexually groped them over their clothes in their sleep.

The parents also stated that they put "safeguards" all over their home and watched Josh closely.

Since Josh's sexual molestation report was revealed, TLC has suspended "19 Kids and Counting." The show has also been losing a lot of its advertisers and could be canceled.

The FOX News interviews, conducted by Megyn Kelly, will air Friday on "The Kelly File" at 9 p.m. ET

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