The hack of the hookup site reveals a trail of data leading to the embattled, and antigay, reality star, Gawker reports.
August 19 2015 8:25 PM EST
November 17 2015 5:28 AM EST
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Antigay "family values" activist Josh Duggar is not only an admitted sexual abuser -- now it's been revealed that he was a user of Ashley Madison, a hookup website that specializes in serving "cheating wives and cheating husbands."
A group of hackers called Impact Team gathered 9.7 gigabytes of data from Ashley Madison and published it on an encrypted section of the Internet Tuesday. The data reveals two accounts tied to Duggar, the oldest child in the family featured in the reality show 19 Kids and Counting, Gawker reports.
"Someone using a credit card belonging to a Joshua J. Duggar, with a billing address that matches the home in Fayetteville, Arkansas, owned by his grandmother Mary -- a home that was consistently shown on their now-cancelled TV show, and in which Anna Duggar [Josh's wife] gave birth to her first child -- paid a total of $986.76 for two different monthly Ashley Madison subscriptions from February of 2013 until May of 2015," Gawker writes. He was seeking a woman who enjoyed "conventional sex" but was also "open to experimentation," the article notes.
In July 2014, when he started the second account, linked to his home in Oxon Hill, Md., "Duggar paid an initial fee of $250 that appears to have gone toward the purchase of an 'affair guarantee,'" Gawker adds. Those who paid that fee were offered their money back if they didn't have an affair within three months.
In May of this year, Duggar, 27, resigned from his job with Family Research Council Action, the lobbying arm of the antigay Family Research Council, amid the revelation that he had been accused of sexually abusing underage girls, including some of his sisters, when he was a teenager. He admitted to having "acted inexcusably" in those years, and later two of his sisters, Jessa and Jill, came forward and said he had touched them inappropriately, but they said they had forgiven him. No charges were ever brought against him because his actions were not reported to police until after the statute of limitations had run out.
TLC canceled19 Kids and Counting in July, but on August 30 it will broadcast a documentary on child sexual abuse featuring Jessa and Jill. Now their parents, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, are reportedly pitching TLC a new reality series in which they would counsel abuse victims.
The conservative Christian family has long been known for antigay and anti-transgender activism. Among other things, members of the family campaigned against an LGBT rights ordinance in Fayetteville, passed by the City Council but then repealed by voters. Michelle Duggar recorded a robocall for the campaign claiming that transgender people prey on children. By the way, she has a lesbian sister, Evelyn Ruark.
Regarding Josh Duggar's Ashley Madison accounts, Gawker asked the family, TLC, and the Family Research Council for comment, but so far has received none. There is no mention of the matter on the Duggar family's website or Facebook page.