Former ’19 Kids and Counting’ star Joseph Duggar is arrested on a child molestation charge

Former reality TV star Joseph Duggar is facing a child molestation charge in Florida, nearly five years after his brother Josh, who also starred on the TLC show “19 Kids and Counting,” was convicted of downloading child sexual abuse images.

Joseph Duggar, 31, was arrested in Arkansas, where he lives, and was awaiting extradition to Florida on Thursday. Duggar is accused of lewd and lascivious conduct on a child under 12, according to an arrest affidavit from the Bay County Sheriff’s Office in Panama City, Florida.

Police officers in Tontitown, Arkansas, contacted Bay County deputies on Wednesday, saying they interviewed a 14-year-old girl who told them Duggar molested her multiple times during a family trip to Panama City Beach when she was 9, according to the affidavit.

The girl’s father confronted Duggar about the abuse this week, and the father said Duggar admitted to it. Tontitown police officers asked the father to call Duggar with an online detective, and he again admitted to the acts, the arrest affidavit states.

There were no online court records in Florida for Duggar, so it was unclear if he had an attorney. No one immediately responded to a request made on the Duggar family’s media request website.

Tontitown police did not respond to email and phone inquiries.

TLC’s “19 Kids and Counting” followed the lives of devout Baptists Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar and their 19 children, all of whose names began with the letter “J.”

TLC canceled the show in 2015 following allegations that Josh Duggar molested four of his sisters and a babysitter years earlier. Josh Duggar’s parents said he admitted to the touching and apologized.

He was sentenced in 2022 to about 12 1/2 years in prison on one count each of receiving and possessing images depicting child sexual abuse.

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Sara Cline in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, contributed to this report.