Former reality TV star Joseph Duggar was arrested Wednesday on accusations he molested a 9-year-old girl.
Duggar, 31, is accused of having repeatedly engaged in unlawful sexual activity with the alleged victim, who is now 14, while vacationing with the girl’s family in Panama City Beach, Florida, in 2020, according to multiple reports.
He was detained near his home in Tontitown, Arkansas, and is currently awaiting extradition to Bay County, Florida, where he’ll face charges of lewd and lascivious behavior, as well as molestation of a victim less than 12 years old.
The Bay County sheriff’s office released a statement on social media regarding the ongoing investigation on Wednesday. According to the statement, Duggar “repeatedly asked [the victim] to sit on his lap” during the vacation, and later “manipulated the victim’s underwear and grazed her genitals.” He would “also continue to rub his hands on her thighs.”
Duggar would’ve been 26 at the time of the alleged incidents. The sheriff’s office statement also indicated that Duggar has admitted his actions to the victim’s father and to Tontitown detectives.
The sheriff’s office in Washington County, Arkansas, released Duggar’s mug shot hours after his arrest.
Duggar ― along with his parents, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, and his 18 siblings ― rose to fame in 2008 as the stars of the TLC reality series, “19 Kids and Counting.”
The Arkansas family was part of an ultra-conservative religious group, the Institute in Basic Life Principles, and adhered to strict rules that included dressing modestly and homeschooling their children.
The series was canceled in 2015 when Josh Duggar, the eldest of the Duggar children, was accused of molesting his sisters, Jill and Jessa, along with three other girls, while he was a teenager. He would later acknowledge he’d “acted inexcusably,” apologizing for what he described as “my wrongdoing.”
A spinoff series, “Counting On,” premiered in 2015 without Josh’s involvement. However, that show was canceled in 2021 after Josh was found guilty of receiving and possessing child pornography. He’s currently serving a 12-year prison sentence.
On Wednesday, a video from 2015 in which Joseph Duggar discusses Josh’s arrest began making the rounds on social media.
“I don’t think there’s any way any of us would’ve known that my brother’s living such a secret life,” he says in the clip.
Watch an “Entertainment Tonight” report on Duggar’s arrest below.
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