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We learned a lot about Josh Duggar during his child pornography trial.
As expected, many of the revelations had to do with Josh’s sordid past, as a former Duggar family friend took the stand to talk about the earliest signs of the defendant’s predatory behavior.
Bobye Holt testified about the experiences she had with Josh when he was still in his teens.
At the request of Jim Bob and Michelle, Bobye served as a sort of spiritual adviser to Josh.
As such, she became his greatest confidante, and she was one of the first to learn that Josh had molested five young girls while he was still in his teens.
Obviously, that revelation would have been horrifying no matter the circumstances, but for Bobye the situation was exacerbated by the fact that Josh was dating her daughter Kaeleigh.
This was several years before he met his future wife Anna, and Josh’s parents instructed him to end the relationship with Kaeleigh when they first learned that he had molested four of his sisters and a family babysitter.
Before the trial, the Holts were a very private family, and Kaeleigh hed never spoken publicly about her brief relationship with Josh.
After the verdict was delivered, however, the mother of five broke her silence with a lengthy Instagram Story in which she gave her side of the story for the first time.
“I try to keep parts of my past more private and just talk about my life now,” Kaeleigh said in a series of deleted videos, according to The Ashley’s Reality Roundup.
“But I feel like what’s been happening in the last week or so has kind of forced me to say things and talk about it. Many of you who are on here know that my family grew up with the Duggars and we were inseparable at one point,” she continued.
“Many of you know about my past relationship. And that didn’t really get talked about; it was kept quiet for most of my life until recently.”
Kaeleigh is referring, of course, to her mother’s testimony, which helped prosecutors establish a pattern of predatory behavior.
“We have been friends with the Duggars for 36 years. Our children were best friends,” Bobye testified during the trial.
“Our oldest was Josh’s girlfriend in November of 2002. It was formal. They were 14.”
While Kaeleigh prefers to keep that part of her life private, she says she understands that her mother had no choice but to talk about it during her time on the witness stand.
“Obviously, when you’re under oath you tell the truth,” she said on Instagram.
“So when my mom was asked how she came to know the information she was witnessing about, she had to tell the truth. That kind of brought to light my past. Not that I’m trying to hide it,” Kaeleigh continued.
“My closest friends know, but I didn’t really want it broadcasted everywhere, but it’s kind of been happening without me really pursuing that.
“So I have felt like I had to talk about it, which is OK. I’m not ashamed of it.”
For obvious reasons, Kaeleigh gained quite a few new followers in recent weeks.
She said that while she’s okay with the fact that people found her Instagram page because of the trial, they should know that she won’t be speaking much about the Josh situation going forward.
“I did want to address what I want to do moving forward with my Instagram account,” Kaeleigh said.
“There are a lot of people here following me because of my relations to the Duggars and they know we were really good friends growing up,” she continued.
“I have taken about a week to really think about what I want to do here….I didn’t know how to go about [keeping] my privacy at the same time.”
Bobye and husband Jim Holt parents were ecstatic when Josh was convicted, and they shared their relief on Instagram shortly after the verdict was announced.
Kaeleigh, however, has been much more reserved in her remarks, and — likely to the disappointment of some of her new followers — it seems that she’ll continue to keep her feelings to herself.
“I am going to keep a lot of my life private. I’m going to keep my children’s lives private,” she said.
“And I am attempting to, not really go too much in-depth about my thoughts…now I feel like I have to be more-careful about what I say and more discreet to keep my family’s privacy.”
Hopefully, people who were drawn to Kaeleigh’s account out of curiosity about her relationship with Josh will now feel that their questions have been answered.
Like everyone else involved with this situation, the Holts would probably live to move on and leave it in the past as best they can.
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