Jim Bob & Michelle Duggar Speak Out About Son Josh's Molestation Scandal in New Interview (Video)

The Duggar family is speaking out in response to the molestation scandal involving eldest son Josh.

Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, who star in TLC’s 19 Kids and Counting with their entire family, sat down for an interview on Fox News’ The Kelly File to discuss the incidents in which Josh, now 27, fondled five young girls back in 2002 and 2003.

“Our son, Josh, came to us on his own and he was crying and he had just turned 14 and he had said he had actually improperly touched some of our daughters,” Jim Bob said. “He said he was just curious about girls…they didn’t even know he had done it.”

The couple then confirmed that four of the girls were their daughters and one was a babysitter. They also said that there were two incidents in which the girls were awake, but they didn’t “understand” what was happening at the time.

“First we tried to deal with this in house as parents,” Jim Bob said, “Looking back, we did the best we could under the circumstances…We tried to make things as normal as we can. We were watching his behaviors, watching his attitude.”

Josh was sent away for mentoring at a Little Rock training center.

“There was so much grief in our hearts,” Michelle said. “I think as parents we felt, ‘Ugh, we’re failures.’ Here we tried to raise our kids to do what’s right, to know know what’s right, and, yeah, one of our children did made some really bad choices, and I think as a parent, we were just, we were devastated.”

As for why they decided to do a reality TV show knowing that they had this secret, Jim Bob said, “All this had been taken care of five years before.”

Two of the victims, Josh‘s sisters Jill and Jessa, also spoke out about the repeated incidents, in an interview airing on Friday, June 5.

“I do want to speak up in his defense against people who are calling him a child molester or a pedophile or a rapist, some people are saying,” Jessa reportedly said (via Us Weekly). “I’m like, ‘That is so overboard and a lie really.’ I mean people get mad at me for saying that, but I can say this because I was one of the victims.”