The younger Duggar brothers are speaking out about the Josh Duggar scandal that has clouded their family over the past year.
“I always wanted to be like him. But one of the toughest things I had to tell my older brother was, ‘I don’t want to be like you anymore,'” Josh’s brother John-David says in an emotional new clip (via People) from a new TV special about the family.
This is the first time the brothers are speaking out about their family since it was revealed that Josh molested five minors, including his sisters, when he was a teen. Following that bombshell, in August Josh’s name was revealed in the Ashley Madison hack, and he then admitted to having cheated on his wife and being addicted to porn.
“After everything started to settle down from the first release of stuff in the news about Josh, we got word of a second thing that we had no clue about,” says 25-year-old John-David. “That was a little more of a shock probably than the first stuff coming out because you look at your brother and you want to think the best about him.”
Another one of Josh’s younger brothers, Joseph, also weighed in on the scandal saying he had no idea the oldest Duggar child was leading such a secret life.
“It broke my heart,” the 20-year-old tearfully says in the clip. “Whenever somebody you respect the most is willing to get up and proclaim what we believe as Christians, about being true to your wife, you’d never think that that’s the person who’s involved in it.”
John-David, the second oldest son behind Josh, now says he feels like he needs to be a role model for his siblings.
“I’ve got a whole bunch of younger siblings looking up to me, and I’ve got to be an example to them,” he says. “Because whatever I am, that’s what they want to be. I know that’s how it was for me and Josh.”
In the wake of the scandal, the Duggars’ TLC show, “19 Kids and Counting,” was canceled, but “Jill & Jessa: Counting On” will follow two of the sisters as they move on from the drama over the year.