Josh Duggar Admits to Cheating on His Wife Anna Duggar: "I Have Been the Biggest Hypocrite Ever"

Yahoo! Celebrity
August 20, 2015

https://celebrity.yahoo.com/news/josh-duggar-admits-cheating-wife-anna-duggar-biggest-181646308-us-weekly.html

Josh Duggar has confessed to cheating on his wife Anna Duggar, just one day after the emails of millions of users on infidelity website Ashley Madison were exposed, including the eldest Duggar son's information.

In a statement released on the Duggar family's official website on Thursday, Aug. 20, Josh admitted to being unfaithful to his wife Anna, also the mother of his four kids.

"I have been the biggest hypocrite ever. While espousing faith and family values, I have secretly over the last several years been viewing pornography on the internet and this became a secret addiction and I became unfaithful to my wife," he wrote. "I am so ashamed of the double life that I have been living and am grieved for the hurt, pain and disgrace my sin has caused my wife and family, and most of all Jesus and all those who profess faith in Him."

He apologized directly to his family for his latest and previous scandal. "I brought hurt and a reproach to my family, close friends and the fans of our show with my actions that happened when I was 14-15 years old, and now I have re-broken their trust," he continued. "The last few years, while publicly stating I was fighting against immorality in our country, I was hiding my own personal failings. As I am learning the hard way, we have the freedom to choose to our actions, but we do not get to choose our consequences. I deeply regret all hurt I have caused so many by being such a bad example."

He concluded with an apology. "I humbly ask for your forgiveness. Please pray for my precious wife Anna and our family during this time."

Days before his Ashley Madison accounts were revealed, the embattled 19 Kids and Counting son celebrated his baby girl's one-month birthday with his wife on social media. "Meredith Grace is 1 month old today," Duggar, 27, wrote on Instagram, alongside a photo of his bundled-up baby daughter. "We are so grateful for our 4th little blessing!"

Anna also marked the occasion a week ago with an Instagram #TBT from last month. "Throwback to three weeks ago today when Meredith was born!" the mother of four wrote, alongside a split-screen shot of Jill Duggar and Derick Dillard marveling at their newborn niece. "So glad Jill was able to FaceTime and 'be there' for Meredith's birth all the way from Central America! Love you Aunt Jill & Uncle Derick!!! #ThrowbackThursday."

The couple are parents to Mackynzie, 5, Michael, 4, Marcus, 2, and Meredith. Since the post about baby Meredith, Anna has not updated her social media accounts. Her husband has also remained silent on social media, with the exception of asking his followers on Instagram to donate and support a family friend on Tuesday, Aug. 18.

A day after Josh's last Instagram update, it was revealed in the Ashley Madison hack that he may have had not only one, but two subscriptions on the marital affair website. As was promised by hackers, stolen data from Ashley Madison — including email addresses and information about millions of members on the infidelity website — was revealed on Tuesday, Aug. 18.

Gawker looked into the emails and found a credit card belonging to a Joshua Duggar, which was used to pay for two Ashley Madison subscriptions between February 2013 and May 2015. According to Gawker, the billing address of the card matched the home of the family's grandmother Mary. It also revealed that the person listed interests like "one-night stands," "experimenting with sex toys," and more.

This is the latest scandal to rock the Duggar family — and specifically, Joshua, who confessed to molesting five underage girls, including his sisters Jill and Jessa Duggar, back in 2002, when he was 14 years old. Since then, Josh has resigned from his post as executive director of the conservative lobbying group Family Research Council.

TLC has also canceled his family's wildly popular show, 19 Kids and Counting.