Reality Star Josh Duggar Sentenced to 12.5 Years

Josh Duggar (Credit: Shutterstock)

Josh Duggar learned his fate Wednesday for receiving and possession of explicit images of children.

An Arkansas jury sentenced the 19 Kids and Counting star to 151 months in federal prison — about 12.5 years — after he was found guilty in December 2021.

Duggar had been facing a maximum sentence of 20 years behind bars, but instead got about eight years less.

A day earlier, U.S. District Judge Timothy Brooks denied his request for an acquittal or a new trial.

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Duggar was taken into custody in April 2021 by the U.S. Marshals Service. Federal prosecutors said he “used the internet to download” material depicting abuse.

In 2015, tabloid reports surfaced saying Josh had abused five underage girls. He acknowledged abusing the girls when he was a teenager, and also confessed to cheating on his wife, having an addiction to por**graphy, and entered rehab.

Duggar, his parents and siblings starred on TLC’s 19 Kids and Counting until the network canceled the show in 2015, following the reports that Josh had molested four of his sisters and a babysitter. He called himself “the biggest hypocrite ever” when he apologized in 2015 for cheating on his wife as well as for his por**ography addiction.

After his arrest in April 2021, TLC canceled the Duggar family spinoff series Counting On, which centered on Josh’s sisters, their husbands and children.

Josh, 34, is the oldest child of devout Christians Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar.