What 'Shiny Happy People' reveals about the Duggars: 'We were taken advantage of'
Jim Bob Duggar, Michelle Duggar and their giant family were once the golden children of TLC, as their hit show "19 Kids and Counting" ushered in an obsession with Christian fundamentalist life.
The shine of reality TV fame and the family's once-charming facade of purity and religious devotion quickly faded in 2015 when the firstborn Duggar child, Josh, was accused of molesting five younger girls — four of whom were his sisters — when he was 15. The series was canceled that year.
In a separate case, Josh was convicted on two counts of possessing and receiving child pornography in December 2021. He was sentenced to 12 ½ years in prison last May.
"Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets," a new docuseries from Amazon Studios, hones in on how the Institute in Basic Life Principles (founded by disgraced minister Bill Gothard) was a breeding ground for abusive behavior — such as Josh's — toward women and children. Jill Dillard, the second-eldest Duggar daughter and one of Josh's victims, is among the interview subjects who break
