Jill Duggar finally speaks up about the family's scandal ignited by her brother Josh Duggar's confession about being a pornography addict and cheating on his wife Anna. She also tackled the sensitive subject of Josh's sexual molestation where she was named as one of the victims.
Jill Duggar let out her true feelings as "Jill and Jessa: Counting On" premiered Sunday. The show is a three-part Duggar special produced by TLC. Aside from Jill, the younger brother, sisters and their husbands opened up about how they were affected by the shocking revelation of the sibling's eldest brother Josh. The family relayed how they are coping with the aftermath of the shameful experience as well.
The siblings can't help but cry when they talked about how hard it has been for them since their brother's secret ‘double-life was let out of the bag.
"Life over the past four months has been pretty crazy for my family. Everybody makes their own decision and makes their own choices but they are not the only ones who suffer the consequences," Jessa lamented.
Jill added, "The last four months of my life have been different than what I expected. You always think at the beginning of the year what the year will hold and it has not been like what we thought."
But the 24-year-old wife of Derrick made it clear that though the trauma was so great for everyone in the family, they have learned a lot and moving on just fine. "We definitely learned from that situation, we are not responsible for somebody else's life choices, but it hurts when you are there. It doesn't mean it doesn't leave a scar but you move on, you have boundaries then you start to rebuild and you go on with life, but that was really, really hard."
Jill Duggar and Jessa eventually mentioned Josh's molestation offense. The sisters turned emotional since the two of them were victims too. They said that when their brother acknowledged his wrongdoing, that's the only time they've learned that he molested them and three more teen girls.
And although the sexual abuse (by fondling) happened 12 years ago, the second oldest daughter in the Duggar family revealed she was dismayed that the case was publicized this year.
In tears, she said: "The police report was released to the world, and I know that wasn't right. Whoever released that, that wasn't right. It shouldn't have happened. We had moved on from there, so for this to be released right after Israel was born, and all these happy occasions in my life, and to be thrown under the bus was really, really hard."
With the painful experience, have the sisters forgiven their brother?
On US Weekly, the sisters shared that they have already forgiven Joshua and they started the process of moving on.
"You know when something happens you go on with your life, you move on. We have chosen, Jessa and I can say that, we have chosen to forgive Josh and that is an important part of our own healing. If we do not forgive then we cannot move on," they said.
Jill Duggar and her siblings remained optimistic and believe that something better lay ahead of them after coming out from the dark.
"Going forward we will come out of this fire stronger as a family unit as life is full of challenges and struggles and this is just one of those. We do feel like we are stepping on and looking forward to the things that are ahead, there are exciting things and I am sure more challenges down the road but we are taking it one step at a time," said Jill.
Lastly, the fifth daughter Joy concluded, "I think there is hope for our family. We are not going to get back to that normal life but there will be a new normal and we are getting there slowly but surely and we do see some exciting things coming up."
