Studying Time: 4 minutes
Amy Duggar King grew up figuring out and loving her maternal grandfather.
Jimmy Lee Duggar was the daddy of each Jim Bob and Deanna.
Rising up, Amy had a connection to Josh earlier than ever studying that he was a monster.
Now, she’s opening up concerning the different sexual predator in her household — and the second that she discovered why she was by no means allowed to be alone along with her grandfather.
Actuality TV character Amy Duggar appeared on Marriage Boot Camp along with her husband, Dillon King. (Picture Credit score: WEtv)
Amy Duggar was shut along with her grandfather — however by no means ‘too’ shut
As she promotes her upcoming memoir, Holy Disruptor, the notorious Duggar cousin can be speaking up a storm.
Talking to Folks, Amy Duggar King is delving into the subject of her grandfather and the darkish household secret surrounding him.
Rising up, she cherished Jimmy Lee — however nobody allowed her to spend any alone time with him. Not ever.
“I wondered all the time,” Amy recalled of this particular rule. “I asked.”
She described: “I asked my mom, I asked my grandma, and they obviously were going to protect the answer.”
For ‘Shiny Happy People’ Season 2, Amy Duggar King acknowledges that she obtained blowback for her participation within the first season. (Picture Credit score: Prime Video)
“They didn’t want me to know that information growing up,” Amy defined.
When her grandfather died in 2009, she says, her mom informed her that her grandfather was — in Amy’s phrases — a “predator.”
That lastly defined all the things. Although she had “obviously assumed” that one thing alongside these traces would clarify this uncommon household rule.
“I always had assumptions as to why, but it was never spoken about,” Amy described.
“It was a little difficult,” she admitted. “But I’m one of those people that when I was little, I asked questions, sure. But if something was told to me, I just believed it.”
In 2017, Amy Duggar appeared on Marriage Boot Camp alongside her husband. (Picture Credit score: WEtv)
She discovered so many issues that she and her grandfather couldn’t do collectively
“I was very naive, and I’m a kid, so I was like, ‘Okay,’” Amy Duggar recalled of not questioning this family rule.
“I knew grandpa couldn’t go to the trampoline with me,” she acknowledged. She added: ‘I knew grandpa couldn’t sit and watch a film with me.”
Amy continued itemizing: “I knew grandpa couldn’t be in a car with me. I knew grandpa couldn’t take me to school.”
She summarized: “There were so many things, and I just knew that that’s how it was.”
Amy’s late grandmother, Mary Duggar, would make sure that her door was locked. Deanna would additionally verify on her. That second one is often regular, however was clearly an added layer of precaution.
Amy Duggar seems within the latest Amazon documentary sequence Shiny Completely happy Folks. (Picture Credit score: Amazon)
“It was like this protective tent over me, if you will, that was not going to let a bug in,” Amy characterised.
When it got here time for Deanna to inform her what kind of man her grandfather actually was, it was a troublesome second. However she and her mother bonded over it.
“My mom and I sat there and cried, and I just held her, and she held me,” Amy described.
She characterised: “It was like this insane bonding moment that we’ve been needing for our entire life.”
Amy continued: “that we finally were allowed to just be really vulnerable with each other and share. And thank God.”
Amy Duggar sits down right here on the sofa of Marriage Boot Camp. She went on this system to work on her marriage. (Picture Credit score: WEtv)
‘It was so close to me’
Amy Duggar has many optimistic reminiscences of her late grandfather. She cherished him and his humorousness.
However, clearly, had her mom and grandmother been much less vigilant, she “could have been a victim, too.”
Amy remarked: “It’s crazy to think it was so close to me in so many ways.”
Many could discover it surprising that her household allowed Amy to know this man in any respect. However, generations in the past, it was not that unusual for one relative to attend each household gathering — however with dad and mom setting guidelines for his or her kids round them.
That is very a lot the world that a lot of the Duggar household — not simply the cult to which Jim Bob adheres — belongs. It’s not a protected world for kids. We’re glad that Amy was fortunate sufficient to keep away from that specific horror.