On Fox News, Duggars defend covering up son's molestation of 4 sisters, babysitter

In their first interview since In Touch reported that their eldest son had sexually molested five girls, reality TV stars Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar told Fox News host Megyn Kelly that all five victims — four of Josh Duggar's sisters and a babysitter — had forgiven him, that the family had moved on, that Josh Duggar (now 27) wasn't a pedophile because he was 14 and 15 at the time of the molestation, and that, in Michelle Duggar's words, the releasing of the police record was "more about there's an agenda, and there's people that are purposing to try to bring things out and twisting them to hurt and slander."

After Josh Duggar, at age 14, told his parents he had sneaked into his sisters' room and "improperly touched" them, they were "devastated," Michelle Duggar told Kelly. "He said he was just curious about girls and he had gone in and just basically touched them over their clothes while they were sleeping; they didn't even know he had done it," said Jim Bob Duggar, who did most of the talking. "This was not rape or anything like that," he added. "This was like touching somebody over their clothes. There were a couple instances where he touched them under their clothes."

The Duggar parents said that after Josh's admission, they talked to him, punished him, and "watched him all the time," but after his third confession, they sent him away to a Christian guidance program which, they said, did the trick.

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When Kelly asked why, five years after finally reporting the molestation to the police (the officer Josh talked to is now in jail on child pornography charges), the Duggars decided to sign on for a reality show in 2008, Jim Bob explained they had "nothing to hide." The family "had taken care of all of that, years before. We had a clean bill of health from the state. We had no fear. That was actually a sealed juvenile record. They said it would never be brought out." Kelly's interview with two of Josh's self-identified victims, sisters Jill and Jessa Duggar, will air Friday.