- Amy Duggar King said her cousin Josh Duggar once told her "he knew better" than to abuse her.
- She told Vanity Fair she thinks he intentionally chose his sisters as victims because he knew they wouldn't expose him.
In an interview with Vanity Fair, Amy Duggar King recalled confronting her cousin Josh Duggar in person for the first time after she learned in 2015 that the "19 Kids and Counting" star had been accused of molesting several of his younger sisters.
The alleged abuse occurred between March 2002 and March 2003 when Josh Duggar was 14 and 15 years old, court documents stated. At the time, his sisters ranged in age from five to 11 years old. King was 15 in 2002.
"He was staying in a trailer and I went in there and I said, 'How could you do this?'" King told Vanity Fair reporter Kait Hanson of her "very bold" confrontation with her cousin. She also said Duggar told her "he knew better" than to target her.
King told Vanity Fair she believes Duggar intentionally preyed on girls he knew would keep the abuse secret.
Duggar and the sisters who eventually came forward as his victims — Jill Dillard, Jessa Seewald, Jinger Vuolo, and Joy-Anna Forsyth — grew up following the strict teachings of the Institute of Basic Life Principles (IBLP), which preaches that men have authority over women and should obey them. King didn't follow this lifestyle.
"The IBLP prizes the first child, it doesn't get much better than if it's a son," King told Vanity Fair, noting that Duggar's position as the first-born son of the family meant that people would "cover up things" for him.
She added that she thinks the fact that he could do no wrong made Duggar become "numb" to the law. "He thought he could get away with anything," she said.
King found out about Duggar's molestation allegations along with the rest of the world in 2015, when InTouch Weekly released its bombshell report on the scandal. She admitted that she was "pissed" she hadn't learned about it earlier.
"They didn't want to protect me," she said of her uncle and his family.
In May 2022, Duggar was sentenced to 12.5 years in prison on charges related to receiving child pornography.
In a recent interview with Insider, King, who has been outspoken about Duggar's child pornography charges in the past, said she had "no words" left for her cousin. "Anyone that can hurt a child like that... In the Bible, it says it's better to hang a millstone around your neck and to be thrown into the depths of the sea," she told Insider.
The TLC show "19 Kids and Counting" aired from 2008 to 2015 and chronicled the Duggar family's life in rural Arkansas. The show was canceled amid Josh Duggar's abuse scandal.
King participated in "Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets," a three-part documentary series exposing the IBLP. "Shiny Happy People" is now streaming on Amazon.