Two days following the apprehension of former reality TV personality Joseph Duggar from the show “19 Kids and Counting,” an arrest warrant was issued and served for his spouse, Kendra Duggar. The Tontitown Arkansas Police Department disclosed that Kendra Duggar faced four charges each of endangering the welfare of a minor and false imprisonment, all classified as second-degree offenses, on Friday. The same charges were also levied against Joseph Duggar. Joseph Duggar had previously been arrested last Wednesday for inappropriate conduct with a child under 12 years old, which was linked to an alleged incident involving a 9-year-old girl in Panama Beach, Fla., in 2020.
Following his arrest in Tontitown, Joseph Duggar opted out of an extradition hearing on Friday, paving the way for his transfer to Florida to address the child molestation accusation. Kendra Duggar, on the other hand, was released shortly after her arrest upon posting a $1,470 US bond, as per the Washington County Sheriff’s Office website. Despite multiple attempts, the Duggar family declined to provide a statement to CBC News on Monday.
The charges against Joseph and Kendra Duggar mark a separate legal ordeal almost five years after Joseph’s elder brother, Josh Duggar, was found guilty of possessing child sexual abuse materials. Investigators in that case revealed that a computer at a car dealership owned by Josh Duggar was utilized in 2019 to download explicit images depicting child abuse, including infants. Josh Duggar received a 12½-year prison sentence in 2022, and his appeal against the conviction was denied by the Supreme Court in 2024.
Both Josh and Joseph Duggar were prominently featured in the reality show “19 Kids and Counting” on TLC, which chronicled the lives of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, an Independent Baptist couple raising a large family where all children had names starting with the letter J. The show, which started in 2004 with “14 Children and Pregnant Again!” before evolving into “19 Kids,” aired from 2008 to 2015 until its cancellation due to allegations of Josh Duggar’s past misconduct towards his sisters and a babysitter. Subsequently, the spin-off series “Counting On” met the same fate following Josh Duggar’s arrest.
Joseph and Kendra Duggar’s courtship and marriage, documented on “Counting On,” have seen the couple retreat from public visibility in recent years. Their last shared post on the public Instagram account, dating back to 2021, commemorated their third child’s second birthday.