Five months after their brother’s molestation scandal broke across the world, Jessa and Jill Duggar – two of Josh Duggar’s victims – have appeared on a program about child sexual abuse.
The sisters, aged 22 and 24, featured in the documentary, Breaking the Silence, alongside their mother, Michelle.
The documentary revolves around interviews given by survivors of child sexual abuse, including actress Teri Hatcher, Dancing With The Stars contestant Cheryl Burke, writer and activist Erin Merryn, and the two Duggar girls.
However, unlike the other women interviewed, neither Jill nor Jessa spoke about their own experiences, instead choosing to speak on what course of action parents should pursue to protect their children from sexual abuse.
Declining to comment on their own abuse, Jill and Jessa went on to discuss a recent seminar they attended in abuse prevention training, hosted by sexual abuse organisation Darkness To Light.
“I was so glad that my girls and I were able to do this together and that we could just be a support and encouragement to each other to be able to gain more information about this important topic,” said Michelle on the show.
Jessa, the younger of the sisters, commented that she hoped the subject would become less taboo over time.
“I feel like this should be a discussion people are having, even regularly,” said the 22-year-old, “I think that it shouldn’t be a taboo subject, that we should be bringing awareness to child sexual abuse and talking about this.”
Jessa, who is currently expecting her first child, also commented that the prevention seminar taught her “things I can do to be more aware, things I can do to set up boundaries and safeguards for my child and children, hopefully, in the future.”
Whilst her elder sister commented: “It’s amazing to understand that there are so many people that deal with this exact same thing in their own families. So just being educated is very good.”
Throughout the duration of the one long TLC special, neither Jessa, Jill nor their mother Michelle mentioned Josh Duggar’s name or actions once.
In May, Josh Duggar admitted to molesting five underage girls, four of whom were discovered to be his sisters. In August, he was embroiled in the Ashley Madison leak, which revealed that he had been paying for extramarital affairs for more than 14 months.
Josh has been married to wife, Anna, since 2008 and has four children.
