EXCLUSIVE – Amy Duggar blasts Jim Bob and Michelle’s ‘distorted’ religion for ‘BREEDING predators’ like her cousin Josh – while ‘brainwashing’ women – as she shares fears over safety of their youngest kids
- Amy, 36, spoke exclusively to DailyMail.com about her estrangement from her uncle Jim Bob and aunt Michelle
- The mother-of-one accused couple of not protecting their daughters from pedophile son Josh when they were younger
- READ MORE: Josh Duggar’s conviction for downloading child sexual abuse images is upheld by federal appeals court
Amy Duggar King has accused her uncle Jim Bob and aunt Michelle of ‘brainwashing’ women and revealed she is concerned about her younger cousins being raised as members of the Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP).
Amy, 36, has not held back when it comes to speaking out about her famous relatives and recently appeared in the Amazon docuseries Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets alongside her cousin Jill Duggar.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com, Amy has now claimed the IBLP is ‘breeding predators’ like Josh Duggar, and condemned the non-denominational Christian organization for it’s ‘unhealthy’ regulations and ‘distorted’ views.
‘You know what’s crazy is that they won’t allow tampons, but they’ll allow predators in the home,’ she said, referring to the organization’s strict lifestyle rules.
‘IBLP it kind of breeds predators, like it breeds little predators, and they’re not taught about sex in a healthy way,’ Amy claimed.
Speaking out: Amy Duggar has accused the Institute in Basic Life Principles of ‘brainwashing’ women in an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com
Not impressed: The 36-year-old furiously criticized the religious organization that her uncle Jim Bob and aunt Michelle are members of
Famous family: Michelle and Jim Bob pictured with their large brood back in March 2014
Following on from the success of their TLC reality show 19 Kids and Counting, the famous family hit the headlines in May 2022, when Jim Bob and Michelle’s eldest child Josh was sentenced to 12 years and seven months in prison after he was found guilty of receiving and possessing child pornography.
His conviction came seven years after he had admitted to inappropriately touching four of his sisters when they were younger. At the time, it was claimed that his own parents knew about it and failed to report the abuse.
Amy – whose mother Deanna is Jim Bob Duggar’s sister – currently has no contact with her aunt and uncle because her number one priority is her three-year-old son Daxton, admitting that she believes her relatives are incapable of protecting their own children, let alone hers.
‘We’re not speaking to them right now. If I cannot trust people that didn’t protect their daughters from horrific abuse and being used like that… if they’re not being protected, then how should I trust them to protect my own child when they can’t protect their own?’ Amy said, referring to Jim Bob, 58, and Michelle, 56.
‘So it’s very black and white for me. I can put that shield up and that armor up, and just say, you know, family is really what you make of it, right?
‘It hurts not to be a part of their lives in a way, because I grew up with them. I’m an only child, and so I grew up with them as my entire family, as kind of brothers and sisters. I’d go over there all the time,’ she continued.
‘Just to know that my little guy isn’t gonna be knowing the younger kids, it does hurt, it does sting, and I wish it didn’t have to be that way, but protection for my little one is the most important thing on the planet to me.
‘So there’s no really coming back from it, I don’t see how we can. We can forgive, but we can’t forget.’
Behind bars: In May 2022, Josh Duggar was sentenced to 12 years and seven months in prison
Content couple: Jim Bob and Michelle, pictured here in 2010, have been in the limelight for many years now
Her side: Amy appeared in the Amazon docuseries Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets
Jim Bob and Michelle are parents to 19 children in total, 10 boys and nine girls, four of whom are under the age of 18, and they also care for their nephew Tyler.
As well as 35-year old Josh, the couple are mom and dad to 33-year-old twins Jana and John, Jill, 32, Jessa, 30, Jinger, 29, Joseph, 28, Josiah, 26, Joy, 25, 24-year-old twins Jedidiah and Jeremiah, Jason, 23, James, 22, Justin, 20, and 19-year-old Jackson.
After welcoming six boys in a row, Michelle gave birth to daughter Johannah, who is 17, and are also parents to Jennifer, 16, Jordyn-Grace, 14, and 13-year-old Josie.
Amy appeared on hit reality TV show 19 Kids and Counting when she was just 17-years-old, but she was never a member of the IBLP and never forced to follow any of Jim Bob’s strict rules.
But despite witnessing her cousins’ bizarre upbringing, Amy said it never ‘put her off’ religion.
‘My faith has always been real to me, always. It’s never been about other people or what it looks like for other people. It’s always been in my heart, I truly believe that there is a savior,’ she explained.
‘I knew, looking at the IBLP from afar, even though I was in the household and I was there all the time, I knew something was really strange, even at a young age. I knew that the way that they saw God was different to the way that I did.
‘I knew that I could wear shorts and Jesus still loved me, I never questioned that. I never questioned, “Am I really saved if I if I wear a tank top?” That’s silly because those are man-made-up rules.’
Back then: The Duggar children were homeschooled and raised to follow very strict lifestyle rules
Well-known couple: Jim Bob and his wife Michelle are very much involved in the IBLP
Like mother, like daughter: Amy and her mom Deanna do not have a relationship with Jim Bob at the moment
Still married: Convicted pedophile Josh pictured with his wife Anna, whom he has seven children with
Amy recalled a time when she questioned Jim Bob about some of the rules, such as not being able to wear the color black because the IBLP considered it ‘sexual’ and ‘evil’.
‘I asked him, “Why? Where is that in the Bible? Show me where that is in the Bible?” and it’s clearly not, and so I knew what they followed wasn’t necessarily my Bible, my Bible didn’t say that.’
Viewers were shocked when one participant in Shiny Happy People, who used to be a member of IBLP, revealed that females were not allowed to use tampons and were referred to as ‘devil sticks’.
Commenting on this, Amy alleged: ‘Tampons are not allowed in the IBLP because of how they are inserted, everyone knew that going into it. You know what’s crazy is that they won’t allow tampons, but they’ll allow predators in the home.
‘IBLP, it kind of breeds predators, like it said it breeds little predators, and it’s true because they’re not taught about sex in a healthy way until they’re married and they’re having their honeymoon.
‘I think a lot of IBLP families have good intentions toward that like, “I’m gonna protect my kids”, but you can only protect your kids so much, you have to educate,’ she added.
When asked if she is concerned about the younger Duggar children, Amy replied: ‘I have a big question mark when it comes to how they’re being raised, and I hope that they’re living such a happy life and that they are protected.
‘But then again, they’re under the umbrella right now. So the umbrella of God, and then the husband, and then you’re right there. As far as that’s concerned, you know they’re not married and they’re still very young, and so they’re being influenced, that’s obvious.
On set: The Duggar family pictured during an episode of their TLC reality show in June 2014
Group shot: Amy has a very close relationship with her cousin Jill Duggar and her husband Derick Dillard (left)
Happy couple: Amy has been married to her husband Dillon King since September 2015
Proud parents: Amy and Dillon’s main priority is protecting their three-year-old son Daxton
‘I hope someday that they can just truly know Jesus and know freedom, the way that we know freedom. And not necessarily be tied down to all these man-made rules because that’s what IBLP is. It’s literally someone who was like, “I think this sounds good, and we’re all cookie cutter people and we can all just be the same”, and that’s how the world should be and that’s not what makes the world go round.’
Amy also believes that IBLP is ‘brainwashing literally every wife and every daughter’ and claimed they are told that ‘they are the weaker vessel’.
Referring to another participant in Shiny Happy People, who revealed she was raped three times on her wedding night by her new husband, Amy claimed that women in the IBLP are ‘not getting the respect that they deserve’.
‘It’s just so sad that that happens, but it is prevalent in the IBLP, it happens quite often and it’s so sad because those boys, at a young age they grow up, and they’ve got urges just like every other man, and instead of really educating and understanding why they feel this way and doing it in a healthy way and learning self-control…
‘That’s one thing about IBLP that really ticks me off, no one is allowed to learn self-control.
‘Even when you are married or even when you’re engaged, you have a chaperone and you’re always with someone until you’re married, you’re always being babysat.
‘They asked me to do that with Josh and Anna, if I wanted to be a chaperone, and I was like, “They’re like 18, 19, they don’t need chaperones. Whatever they do, it’s up to them, no one needs to have a babysitter.”
‘It’s just really sad, but at the same time, they don’t necessarily trust their own bodies, their own instincts, and they don’t trust who they’re with, and they don’t trust the whole situation of dating and actually doing it in a healthy way, and that’s why they have to have a babysitter. They call it a chaperone, but it’s a babysitter,’ Amy added.
‘It’s a very distorted view of how a sexual relationship in a healthy way actually goes, and that’s just so sad to me because I hope all of those women that are a part of IBLP truly has like such a great, healthy marriage and a sexual relationship.’
As for Amy, she has been happily married to her husband Dillon King since September 2015, who appears alongside her in Shiny Happy People – and they’re not against taking part in a potential sequel to the docuseries.
‘I would be honored to do something like that again because if it helps one person, if it helps one mom, if it helps one daughter, if it helps a son, if it helps anyone to get the truth out, then it’s worth it, it’s a hundred percent worth it.
‘Because it looks so wholesome from the outside. It looks so shiny and happy, but it’s underneath of just what it really is, and so no one deserves that control, no one needs that.’
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