Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar have released a statement about Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets, a Prime Video docuseries that sheds light on the inner workings of the IBLP and the Duggar family’s connection to the religious group. However, the couple is not featured as part of the streaming event. Only five family members spoke out against the clan in the series. These included daughter Jill Duggar Dillard, her husband Derick Dillard, Amy Duggar King, her husband Dillon King, and Jim Bob’s sister Deanna Jordan.
Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar call ‘Shiny Happy People’ docuseries ‘sad’ with ‘ill intentions’
Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar shared a statement against the Prime Series posted on their family’s official website. The four-part documentary film casts an unflattering light on the IBLP religious group, the Duggar family, and the cable network TLC.
“The recent ‘documentary’ that talks about our family is sad because, in it, we see the media and those with ill intentions hurting people we love,” the statement began. “Like other families, ours too has experienced the joys and heartbreaks of life, just in a very public format.”
Michelle and Jim Bob claim Shiny Happy People “paints so much and so many in a derogatory and sensationalized way.” They cite this as the current state of the entertainment business.
The matriarch and patriarch of the Duggar clan then addressed their estrangement from certain family members. They did not name any of them directly in their post.
“We have always believed that the best chance to repair damaged relationships or to reconcile differences is through love in a private setting. We love every family member and will continue to do all we can to have a good relationship with each one,” the couple wrote.
They finished their statement by saying they find “strength, comfort, and purpose” in their religious beliefs. No further comments were shared by the former TLC stars.
‘Shiny Happy People’ deep dives into how intertwined the Duggars were in getting the IBLP national attention
Throughout the four-part Prime Video docuseries, Shiny Happy People dove deeply into the connections between the Duggar family and the IBLP’s teachings. Positive images of a supersized, happy family were displayed nationally over a dozen years on TLC.
However, in 2015, 19 Kids and Counting was abruptly canceled. It was revealed that Josh Duggar had inappropriately touched four of his younger sisters and a babysitter as a teenager. Subsequently, the family’s spinoff, Counting On, starring Jill Duggar Dillard and her older siblings, ended after Josh was arrested for possessing child pornography in 2021. He was later convicted and sentenced to more than 12 years in prison.
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The IBLP used TLC’s watered-down platform to share its beliefs via the Duggar family. Jim Bob was a high-ranking member of the religious organization. He and Michelle soon became the group’s most famous faces.
Many of the ideals of the IBLP were featured in the series. These included methods of discipline, how to date conservatively, and the father as the patriarchal guiding force over his wife and children. However, viewers were unaware of how much IBLP information they were being introduced to. Consequently, the Duggar series became one of TLC’s highest-rated shows in the channel’s history.
Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar do not appear in ‘Shiny Happy People’ but other close family friends do
Along with several Duggar family members, two close family friends of the Duggar family are featured in Shiny Happy People. Two key people who helped viewers understand the backstory of the Duggar family are Jim and Bobeye Holt.
These close family friends were so intertwined with the Duggars their daughter Kaeleigh was promised in marriage to Josh when she was a teenager. The Holt parents revealed that Josh and his family had been keeping the secrets of his sisters’ sexual abuse. The Duggars did not share any of that information during their daughter’s courtship with Josh.
“He had apparently been doing it since he was 12. But we found out about it when he was 15,” Jim Holt said in the docuseries. “[We said], ‘When were you gonna tell us?’”
He continued, “Michelle said, ‘We weren’t gonna have them tell you guys at all. We were gonna have Josh confess to Kaleigh once they were married.’ And so I asked, ‘So, are you basically saying you were going to use my daughter as, like, a carrot to get him to behave the right way?’ And [Jim Bob] goes, ‘Well, yeah. Kind of.’”
Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets is now streaming in full on Prime Video.
How to get help: If you or someone you know has been sexually abused, text HOME to the Crisis Text Line at 741741 for free and confidential support.
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