NEW YORK (AP) — Calling himself “the biggest hypocrite ever,” ex-reality star Josh Duggar has apologized for a “secret addiction” to pornography and for cheating on his wife.
NEW YORK (AP) — Calling himself “the biggest hypocrite ever,” ex-reality star Josh Duggar has apologized for a “secret addiction” to pornography and for cheating on his wife.
“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 and later removed from the family’s website on Thursday.
The statement was apparently spurred by Duggar’s name appearing among millions exposed in a data breach of customers of the Ashley Madison website, an online service that caters to people looking to cheat on their spouses. Leaked data showed that a Josh Duggar whose address was the same as the reality TV star was a member of AsheleyMadison.com from December 2012 to October 2014.
In his statement, Duggar did not address whether he had used AshleyMadison.com, nor did he detail the exact nature of his marital infidelity. A family representative did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the statement or its removal.
The 27-year-old Duggar’s admission comes several weeks after his exposure that as a teen, he molested four of his sisters and a babysitter. Those revelations led to the cancellation of “19 Kids and Counting,” the hit TLC reality on which he appeared with his 18 siblings and his parents. The series ran from 2008 through its 10th-season conclusion