Amy Duggar King shed light on her connection with cousin Josh Duggar — both before and after his multiple scandals — in her new book, Holy Disruptor.
Ahead of the memoir’s release on Tuesday, October 14, Amy, 39, exclusively opened up to Us Weekly about how she was affected by Josh’s 2015 molestation scandal and 2021 arrest.
“Growing up … we had so much fun,” Amy told Us. “He was such a fun kid. There [were] all kinds of pranks he pulled and jokes. … We just had this connection.”
Amy noted that the pair “very much kept in touch” over the years, revealing that Josh, 37, texted her just weeks before he was arrested for receiving and possessing child sexual abuse material in 2021. He is currently in prison after being sentenced to more than 12 years behind bars.
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When asked whether she’s spoken to Josh at all since his arrest, Amy gave Us a quick no. “That’s a boundary that I will never cross,” she insisted. “Now that I have a child, now that I know the beauty of it and the innocence of them, I will do everything in my power to speak on how to protect children, and that’s a boundary I will never cross.”
Scroll down for everything Amy wrote about Josh in her memoir, available now:
Growing Up Together
Amy recalled how much she “loved” Josh when they were kids, writing, “I had grown up with Josh because my mother, Deanna, is Jim Bob’s only sibling, and our families were close.”
The cousins would walk to each other’s houses to play. “It was pure fun, just kids being kids and loving life, staying outside until dinnertime,” Amy wrote. “Josh always made me laugh, and we got along great. Our bond was strong, and we loved to tease each other.”
Finding the Evidence
Before news broke of Josh’s 2015 scandal, Amy found “some unexpected computer files” on an old device her dad bought from Josh — more specifically, “thousands of pornographic photos and videos of both women and men.”
Amy was “disgusted” by the “hard evidence” of potential “addiction” and “mental problems,” but she also admitted there was “a strange sense of relief knowing that Josh wasn’t a robot.”
Though she attempted to discuss the situation with her extended family, it was “swept under the rug, buried beneath layers of silence and denial.”
Family Nightmare
Following the computer incident, Amy was confronted by her worst “nightmare” while at Walmart. She spotted a magazine cover about “serious sexual abuse allegations against my beloved cousin Josh” — and everything changed.
“This couldn’t be my family, the people I knew and loved and whose house I had been in countless times in my life,” she remembered thinking, saying her “life turned upside down” as she realized “someone I had once looked up to” was living “a lie.”
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The Confrontation
As the world learned about Josh’s molestation scandal, Amy found herself “on a mission” to give him a piece of her mind. She went to her cousins’ house and found Josh with his wife, Anna, in an RV nearby.
Amy “demanded to know how long his abusive behavior had been going on;” but Josh kept quiet. She then yelled, “Josh, how come you never did anything to me?”
According to Amy, Josh answered, “I knew better.” She remembered him giving her “the kind of smile that sent shivers down my spine.”
In her interview with Us, Amy recalled what was going through her head when she decided to confront her cousin. “When I was driving there, I was just like, ‘I’m tired of lies and I’m tired of people telling half truths and not saying what is really going on.’ … I didn’t know what I was gonna do, OK? I had no idea, but I was just like, ‘I’m gonna find out something,’” she said, noting she felt “a righteous rage.”
The Fifth Victim
While several of the girls Josh molested were his own sisters, there was a fifth victim who was not related to the Duggar family. Amy revealed in her book that she reached out to the unnamed person, who “is moving on and ready for a quieter life.”
Speaking to Us before the memoir’s release, Amy opened up about why she felt compelled to have a conversation with the fifth victim. “Before I wrote anything in my book about any of the scandals of anything that’s happened, I wanted to reach out and just show my respect to her, because she’s done such a great job of keeping hush hush. … I did not want to do anything that was going to further her trauma,” she explained.
Amy told Us she was “humbled and grateful” to have the woman’s blessing to include her in the book. “I don’t know if she’s ever gotten a phone call,” Amy added.
Not Getting Help
Amy alleged that Josh’s father, Jim Bob, “did virtually nothing” to help his son in the wake of the 2015 scandal. “In my opinion, Josh wasn’t sorry for what he had done; he was sorry he got caught. That’s what made it all the more difficult to watch,” Amy wrote.
Though Josh was sent “away multiple times to an IBLP correction program,” he was “surrounded by troubled guys like himself” in that environment.
Lies and Arrest
Years after the first scandal, “more rumors” began to swirl about Josh — and Amy wanted the “truth.” She and her husband called Jim Bob, who “brushed” off their concerns.
Eventually, however, Homeland Security showed up at Amy’s house and asked her “about the computer — the one I had told Uncle Jim Bob about years ago that had ‘Josh’s Files’ on it.”
Amy “was devastated” after learning what her cousin had done, describing “a level of disrespect and betrayal I’d never experienced before.”
Following his 2021 arrest, Amy realized, “Josh had clearly been leading a sad, sickening double life for a very long time.”
