The Duggars: TWISTED FAMILY SECRETS

THE SEEMINGLY WHOLESOME MEGA FAMILY EMBRACED A CULTURE OF ABUSE. FINALLY, TWO SURVIVORS ARE BREAKING THEIR SILENCE.

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BACK before the Arkansasbased Duggar family became America’s favorite modestly dressed, side-hugging supersized family on 19 Kids and Counting, they were already big players in the ultra-fundamentalist Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP), founded by Bill Gothard. Among the organizations many precepts: no “worldly” television. At the time, cousin Amy King recalled questioning family patriarch Jim Bob Duggar about crossing that line. His answer? “Well, it’s a ministry.”

Far from being charming oddities with a gaggle of wholesome kids, Jim Bob and his wife, Michelle Duggar, were actually on a mission to spread Gothard’s cult-like teachings to influence everything from politics to women’s rights. Jim Bob even ran for office. Now as “rogue” daughters Jill Duggar Dillard and