Former reality TV star Josh Duggar spoke from behind bars to dismiss child molestation allegations against his brother as ‘sensationalized fiction.’ 

Joe, the 31-year-old younger brother of Josh, was arrested Wednesday and charged in connection with allegations he inappropriately touched a nine-year-old girl.

Josh, who himself is serving a 12-year prison sentence for possessing child pornography, said charges against his brother ‘deeply saddened’ him.

‘While family ties remain deep in the Duggar family, Josh and Joe are not in frequent communication,’ an attorney for Josh said in a statement to the Daily Mail. 

‘Nonetheless, Josh understands the stigma of being accused. He lives with the painful reality of how false accusations can destroy a life. He understands how the targeting of a person for publicity can twist the truth into sensationalized fiction.’

The attorney added that Josh ‘hopes and prays for his brother’s well being in this difficult time’. 

Both brothers were stars on TLC’s 19 Kids and Counting, a reality show that ran for roughly seven years. It followed the lives of Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar along with their nine daughters and ten sons, whose names all start with ‘J’.

Josh’s claim that the charges against Joe are false contradicts authorities’ assertion that Joe admitted to unlawful conduct to both them and the accuser’s father.

Joe Duggar, 31, was arrested on Wednesday on charges accusing him of inappropriately touching a nine-year-old girl in 2020 while on a vacation to Panama City Beach in Florida

Josh Duggar, Joe’s older brother, commented on the allegations against Joe through a representative. He described the case against Joe as ‘false’ and ‘sensationalized fiction’. Josh is currently serving a 12-year sentence after downloading violent child sex abuse material

Joe, a married father of four, repeatedly engaged in ‘unlawful sexual activity’ with the underage girl during a family vacation in 2020 at Panama City Beach, the Bay County Sheriff’s Office in Florida said in a statement released after the arrest on Wednesday.

Police said Joe ‘repeatedly’ asked the girl to sit on his lap. Later, he allegedly asked her to sit on a couch with him.

While a blanket was over them, Joe ‘manipulated’ her underwear, ‘grazed’ her genitals and rubbed her thighs, police said.

The girl, now 14, reported the alleged assault to police in Tontitown, Arkansas, and once investigators determined the incident occurred in Bay County, they referred the case to the sheriff’s office, which issued a warrant for Joe’s arrest. 

Officers with the Tontitown Police Department arrested Joe based on that warrant. He is being held in Arkansas as he awaits extradition back to Florida.

The girl told police that Joe ‘eventually apologized for his actions and the incidents stopped after the apology,’ according to the statement from the Bay County Sheriff’s Office.

The father of the girl confronted Joe about the alleged assault on Tuesday, according to police in Tontitown. After that, Joe admitted to his actions to the father and to a Tontitown detective, police said.

Joe was subsequently charged with lewd and lascivious molestation of a victim less than 12 years old, and with lewd and lascivious behavior conducted by a person 18 years or older.

Joe, a married father of four, manipulated the underage girl’s underwear, rubbed her thighs and grazed her genitalia while under a blanket with her, according to police

Joe was one of the kids on TLC’s 19 Kids and Counting, a reality show that was abruptly canceled in 2015 when allegations emerged that Josh had molested five girls as a teenager, including his sisters

Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar, the parents, admitted on Fox News that four of the five girls Josh molested were his sisters. Josh was never charged over these accusations

The Duggar family’s TLC reality show was canceled in 2015 after allegations emerged that Josh, the oldest son, had molested several girls years earlier, including some of his sisters.

The scandal erupted after a 2006 police report became public, detailing accusations that Josh had engaged in inappropriate sexual conduct as a teenager.

Although no criminal charges were filed against Josh related to these allegations, the Duggar parents told Fox News in 2015 that four of the five girls he molested were his sisters.

In 2022, federal judge Timothy Brooks dismissed a lawsuit from the four sisters, who accused various Arkansas officials of violating their privacy by releasing documents from the molestation investigation. 

While Brooks sympathized with the sisters, he argued that they had not proven that police intentionally violated the law.

In his ruling, he explained that the four sisters ‘were sexually abused by their brother, Joshua’ between March 2002 and March 2003, when he was 14 and 15 years old. Brooks said the girls were between the ages of 5 and 11 during the alleged abuse. 

Brooks also oversaw Josh’s 2021 child pornography trial. Prosecutors said he downloaded 600 photographs and seven videos of violent child sexual abuse.

He was convicted of one count of receiving child pornography and one count of possessing child pornography. The possession charge was later vacated.

Josh is scheduled to be released in October 2032, after which he’ll spend 20 years on supervised release.