One of the Duggar kids from, “19 Kids and Counting,” has admitted to cheating on his wife after he joined ranks with 32 million other people who were outed from the cyber-attack on infidelity website Ashley Madison.
Publicly calling himself “the biggest hypocrite ever,” he admits to having a long-time addiction to pornography, according to ABC.
“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 said in a statement posted on the family’s website Thursday.
Although this was the comment posted on their family website, an earlier edition of the statement included his reference to a previous scandal in which he molested four of his sisters and a baby sitter.
The data breach on the Ashley Madison website, which caters to people looking to cheat on their spouses, is what ignited Duggar to come forward. In the data hacked from the site, it showed that Duggar, linked to the address from the reality TV star’s home, was in fact a member of the website from 2012 to October 2014.
During his statement and admittance of cheating on his wife, he did not say whether or not he had used AshleyMadison.com to do so.
The TLC reality show where he appeared with his 18 siblings and parents was canceled just weeks ago after the molestation scandal broke. The show was on the air from 2008 through it’s tenth, and final, season this May.
“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,” Duggar said in his statement.
The network plans to air a documentary that focuses on the child sexual abuse on August 30 in which two of the sisters that were molested will appear. In May of this year, Josh, the oldest son, apologized for his behavior on a Facebook post and then resigned from the Family Research Council, a conservative Christian group where he was working as a lobbyist.
The Duggar parents and two of their daughters, Jill and Jessa, appeared in an interview and said that they were not aware of the abuse at the time it had happened, until the recent confession from their son.
“When we learned of this late last night our hearts were broken.”
“The last few years, while publicly stating I was fighting against immorality in our country, I was hiding my own personal failings,” stated Duggar, who in his website testament sought the public’s forgiveness and their prayers “for my precious wife Anna and our family during this time.” The couple’s fourth child, a daughter, was born a month ago.
