Duggar Family Skips Gay Uncle's Funeral, Report Claims
The Duggar family reported skipped a gay uncle's funeral, according to new claims. On June 25, Jim Bob Duggar's uncle Tommy died from cardiac arrest at his home in Fayetteville, Arkansas. He was 75 yeas old. The U.S. Sun alleges that neither Jim Bob, his wife Michelle, nor any of their children attended the memorial services.
Notably, Ben Seewald — who is married to Duggar daughter Jessa — was initially set to officiate the funeral. However, the outlet confirmed that he was not present and funeral director Phillip Menke stepped in to be the officiant. The Sun spoke with a source close to the family who explained, "Tommy removed himself from the family decades ago. Nobody kept in touch with him at all. All the family knows is that he was gay and was married. He separated himself from the family when the oldest Duggar children were young."
The new report comes weeks after the release of Prime Video's controversial Duggar family documentary, Shiny Happy People, which uncovers some major accusations against Jim Bob and Michelle. Not the least of which is an allegation that they did not tell the family of their eldest son Josh's first girlfriend about the molestation rumors against him. Back in 2015, reports emerged that Josh had sexually assaulted at least two female minors, both of which turned out to be his sisters.
However, it was learned that the incidents had started as far back as 2001 or 2002 when he was around 13 to 14 years old. At the time, Jim Bob took Josh to see a police officer who gave him a stern lecture but did not take him into custody or bring any charges against him. In the new documentary, former Duggar friends Jim and Bobye Holt share their experiences with the family, which include being close to them during this period, due to their daughter Kayleigh dating Josh. The pair had known one another their whole lives, being born just two days apart in 1988, and the families believes, at the time, they would likely end up together since Josh once asked to "court Kayleigh for the purpose of marriage."
"How deep do we go, 'cause that's a rabbit hole," Jim replies in the doc, after being asked about what he knew of Josh's exploits. "Damn, it's really twisted." Sharing what he recalled of an early '00s conversation with Jim Bob, after hearing about what had been going in the Duggar home, Jim says that the reality TV dad told him: "'Josh has gotten into some trouble, he's touched his sisters inappropriately.'"
Jim went on to reveal that Jim Bob once stated outlet that Josh "molested his sisters." However, Michelle grew upset about this and told him, "Don't you say that again." Jim added, "[Josh] had apparently been doing it since he was 12, but we found out about it when he was 15."
He then claims that he and Bobye asked Jim Bob and Michelle when they were planning to tell them about what happened, and Michelle responded, "'We weren't gonna have them tell you guys at all. We were gonna have Josh confess to Kayleigh once they were married.'" Dropping a major allegation, Jim then stated, "I asked Jim Bob, 'So are you basically saying you were kinda using my daughter as like a carrot to get him to behave the right way?' And he goes, 'Well, yeah, kinda.'"