What to Know
The Duggar family became famous overnight thanks to multiple TLC specials and the family’s reality show 19 Kids and Counting. But Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar’s brood has not been without its faults, not the least of which were multiple arrests and serious charges over the years. After Joseph Duggar was arrested on charges related to alleged molestation, according to Radar, the family reportedly claimed that “Satan” is to blame for everything that has gone poorly for the adult children.
The Duggars are a conservative Independent Fundamentalist Baptist family that follows rules about modesty and courtships. These are the kinds of things that helped set them apart from other reality TV families way back when. So it’s pretty on brand for some of them to claim that evil forces at work are to blame for everything that has gone wrong for the family over the years.
The Duggars are reportedly pointing fingers at evil forces.
According to Radar, a source close to the family revealed that Jim Bob and Michelle believe there is something larger at play and it’s the reason for so many controversies they have faced over the years. Not the fact that Josh Duggar was convicted of crimes related to child sexual abuse material and he went through the trouble of bypassing a monitoring system on his computer. Not the fact that Joseph reportedly admitted his crimes to a police officer and the parents of the victim in his case. Nope, just Satan.
An alleged relative of the Duggar family reportedly told Radar that the Duggars feel like Satan is out to get them.
“As you can imagine, this has been a lot to take in over the past few days,” they said, per Daily Mail. “Everyone is just trying to process it.” The family also allegedly feels like it is a “witch hunt.”
It may be the only way Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar explain things to their kids.
Given the Duggar family’s devout religious beliefs, explaining their troubles away with Satan involved might be the only way they can really come to terms with everything. It might also be the only way Michelle and Jim Bob can explain what is happening to the younger children in the family. In fact, this isn’t the first time the family has cited the Devil for trouble that the adult sons have gotten into.
In 2016, when some of the adult Duggar kids spoke to ABC News about Josh’s then-scandal involving cheating and allegations from his childhood of inappropriate behavior with some of his sisters and an unnamed young girl, John David Duggar mentioned the devil in his response.
“The devil took his best shot,” he said at the time. “And he tried to take our whole family down, but God has really used this to…Instead of tearing us apart as a family, he’s using it to draw us together… We’ve forgiven, and we’re moving on, and we’re looking to the future.”
There have been three major arrests in the Duggar family.
Aside from Josh and Joseph’s arrests, Joseph’s wife Kendra Duggar was also arrested. According to People, Kendra was arrested on four charges each relating to endangering the welfare of a minor and false imprisonment. The charges are reportedly unrelated to Joseph’s, but her arrest came shortly after Joseph’s in March 2026.
In 2021, Jana Duggar faced legal trouble relating to children, but she was not formally arrested. E! News reported at the time that she was charged with misdemeanor child endangerment when one of the children she was babysitting wandered outside and was spotted by someone. Jana was given a citation. Compared to what her brothers have been charged with over the years, it’s nothing. But it’s another footnote in the Duggar family saga.
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