Josh Duggar is not only an admitted child molester, but he’s also an adulterer. The disgraced former 19 Kids and Counting star and conservative lobbyist has admitted that he did use an Ashley Madison account to arrange affairs and cheat on his wife.
After hackers released the full list of subscribers to the Ashley Madison site on Tuesday, Duggar became the first celebrity name to pop up. Gawker published screenshots of the data, which showed that Duggar had two accounts on the site that were active from February 2013 to May 2015.
The Duggar family waited until today to issue a response to the report. His parents, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, claimed that they did not know of their son’s activities until last night.
“When we learned of this late last night our hearts were broken. As we continue to place our trust in God we ask for your prayers for Josh, Anna, our grandchildren and our entire family,” Jim Bob and Michelle said.
The family included a longer statement from Josh, 27, who admitted that, “I have been the biggest hypocrite ever.”
He continued:
“While espousing faith and family values, I have secretly over the last several years been viewing pornography on the internet and this became a secret addiction and I became unfaithful to my wife. I am so ashamed of the double life that I have been living and am grieved for the hurt, pain and disgrace my sin has caused my wife and family, and most of all Jesus and all those who profess faith in Him. I brought hurt and a reproach to my family, close friends and the fans of our show with my actions that happened when I was 14-15 years old, and now I have re-broken their trust. The last few years, while publicly stating I was fighting against immorality in our country, I was hiding my own personal failings. As I am learning the hard way, we have the freedom to choose to our actions, but we do not get to choose our consequences. I deeply regret all hurt I have caused so many by being such a bad example. I humbly ask for your forgiveness. Please pray for my precious wife Anna and our family during this time.”
This revelation comes after InTouch Weekly reported in May that Duggar molested five young girls, including sisters Jill and Jessa, while a teen. In July, TLC finally cancelled 19 Kids and Counting.
In addition to his time on the show, Duggar was also the executive director for the conservative lobbying group Family Research Council.
UPDATE: The Duggars edited Josh Duggar's statement to remove the reference to his pornography addiction:
screenshot from AloneYetNotAlone YouTube Video