Kendra Duggar, the wife of 19 Kids and Counting’s Joseph Duggar, was arrested two days after him on a separate set of child endangerment and false imprisonment charges, all of which he is also now facing and which are reportedly the result of an investigation of their family home related to the separate charges that brought his arrest for inappropriate contact with a 9-year-old in 2020, which sent the former reality TV personality to jail last week.
Kendra Duggar, 27, and Joseph Duggar, 31, were both charged on March 20 with four counts of endangering the welfare of a minor and four counts of false imprisonment after an investigation, according to a release from local police in Tontitown, Ark. She was arrested on Friday and booked into the Washington County Detention Center in Fayetteville just before 5 p.m. local time; she was released on bond by 6:20 p.m. and is set to return to court on April 29, according to local records.
An “active and ongoing” investigation is underway related to the charges, police noted in the release, and “Arkansas law limits the amount of information that can be publicly released in cases involving minors and other sensitive circumstances.”
“To protect the integrity of the investigation and the privacy of those involved, no further details will be provided at this time,” Tontitown police stated.
The arrest of Kendra and the charges the couple now face result directly from the investigation into Joseph Duggar after he apparently admitted to a 9-year-old girl’s accusation that he molested her while the couple was on vacation in Florida in 2020. Following his March 18 arrest in Arkansas on a warrant out of Bay County, Fla., a police investigation of the couple’s home reportedly found that the locks to the bedrooms were on the exterior of the doors, according to a source close to the family who spoke with People.
The couple’s four children are: Garrett David, born in 2018; Addison Renee, born in 2019; Brooklyn Praise, born in 2021; and Justus, born in 2022.
Notably, the Duggar family had placed locks on the doors of their children’s bedrooms to keep the eldest son, Josh Duggar, away from them; in 2015, it was discovered that Josh Duggar molested several underage girls from 2000 to 2004, when he was between the ages of 12 and 16. This included four of his sisters. He is currently serving a 12-year, seven-month prison sentence.
The unearthing of apparently admitted child molestation among members of the famous Duggar family roared back to life last week when, according to police, father of four Joseph Duggar was confronted by the accusing girl’s father about her recent recounting of what happened six years ago, at which point police say Joseph admitted to “unlawful sexual contact.”
“As the vacation continued, he also asked her to sit next to him on a couch and covered them with a blanket. During this time, Joseph manipulated the victim’s underwear and grazed her genitals. He would also continue to rub his hands on her thighs,” the statement from the Bay County Sheriff’s Office said.
He was charged in Bay County with lewd and lascivious behavior — molestation of a victim less than 12 years old — and lewd and lascivious behavior conducted by a person 18 years or older. He is being held at the Washington County Detention Facility awaiting extradition to Florida.
Attorneys and a family spokesperson did not immediately return calls or messages sent by The Hollywood Reporter on Wednesday. A spokesperson for the Duggar family noted previously that Kendra’s charges are in no way related to the charges filed against Joseph.
Joseph and Kendra could face up to eight years in prison if convicted of all charges.
Jinger Duggar, 32, was one of the first of the family to speak out on her own about Joseph’s arrest. On her podcast with her husband, Jinger & Jeremy, she noted it’s “been one of those weeks that feels like years.”
“I did not think my heart could break like it has this week,” Jinger told her audience. “The pain and heartbreak that we’ve had over this and just thinking of how it’s affected so many — yeah, it’s just unthinkable. It’s so hard and painful on many levels.”
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