Jessa and Jill Duggar were interviewed by Fox’s Megyn Kelly last night. The interview was a continuation of Kelly’s sit-down with Duggar parents Jim Bob and Michelle. During the first interview, the Duggars defended the decisions they made after their son Josh admitted to molesting five girls, four of which were his sisters. Last night, Jessa and Jill followed their parents and elaborated on themes that are familiar to the story: namely, rationalizing Josh’s actions and public admission of forgiveness.
“Josh was a boy, a young boy in puberty, and a little too curious about girls,” Jessa said. And that got him into some trouble. And he made some bad choices, but, really, the extent of it was mild – inappropriate touching on fully clothed victims, most of it while [the] girls were sleeping.”
Both Jessa and Jill insisted that their parents had proactively addressed the molestation, setting up “safeguards” throughout the house. “My parents said, ‘Okay, we’re not going to do this hide-and-seek thing where two people go off and hide together,” Jill explained. The women both also confirmed that their parents had put locks on the doors, preventing Josh from entering the girls’ room.
Both Jill and Jessa reassured Kelly that they have definitely forgiven Josh:“When my parents told me this I was … really, I was sad. I was shocked. But I was sad because this is my older brother, who I love a lot. It’s conflicting.
I was angry at first, I was like, ‘How could this happen?’ Jill recalled. And then, you know, my parents explained to us what happened and then Josh came and asked each of us, individually – I know he asked me to forgive him.
And I had to make that choice to forgive him, you know? It wasn’t something that somebody forced, like, ‘Oh, you need to do this.’ You have to make that decision for yourself.
The Duggars continue to emphasize the theme of Christian forgiveness which sounds nice and easy, but it’s also a neat elision of nearly everything the Bible has to say about justice. [People]
A day after announcing that they are expecting a baby, Brittney Griner and Glory Johnson-Griner said that they would be getting an annulment. The couple had been married for 29 days when Brittney Griner filed the paperwork.
“Last Wednesday, Glory and I agreed to either legally separate, get divorced, or annul our marriage,” Griner said in a statement on Friday. E! reports that annulment reasoning is listed as “fraud,” adding that “Petitioner was pressured into marriage under duress by Respondent’s threatening statements.” [E!]
Tim Gunn really, really hates Kim Kardashian’s book of selfies. “To all the young people out there in particular: Banish this…” Gunn said. “This is disgusting and vile. What if this is the only thing that survives in the time capsule?” What if future generations thought our century was the spitting image of Kim Kardashian? Or better yet, what if it was the only thing to survive the apocalypse and humans were forced to rebuild society with Selfish as their only guide? What would the universe look like if the only guide were the selfies of Kim Kardashian? Your move, Margaret Atwood, your move. [Us Weekly]
- Paris Hilton is throwing Nikki Hilton a bachelorette party this weekend. [Page Six]
- Jennifer Lopez is being sued by a Moroccan group simply for being JLo. [TMZ]
- Jennifer Aniston is writing a cookbook. [Us Weekly]
- Kylie Jenner took Chris Brown to task for being a transphobic asshole. [E!]
- Price Harry is maybe dating an actress from Doctor Who. That sentence is very British, and I like it. [E!]
- Matt and Amy Roloff, stars of Little People, Big World, filed for divorce. [Radar]
- Keira Knightley gave birth to a girl. [Page Six]
- Kate Hudson is dating Derek Hough, maybe. That couple is all kinds of weird. [E!]
- Speaking of dating, Gigi Hadid and Joe Jonas are a thing, too. [TMZ]
Images via Getty.