NEW YORK – Former reality TV star Josh Duggar, who has admitted cheating on his wife following reports he was a subscriber to the hacked Ashley Madison affair website, has entered rehab, his family said on Wednesday.
“Yesterday Josh checked himself into a long-term treatment centre. For him it will be a long journey toward wholeness and recovery. We pray that in this he comes to complete repentance and sincere change,” his parents, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, said in a statement on the Duggar Family website.
Duggar, 27, was one of the stars of TLC reality show 19 Kids and Counting about the lives of the deeply Conservative Duggar family who live in Arkansas.
Last week he admitted he had cheated on his wife of six years, and had become addicted to pornography, describing himself as “the biggest hypocrite ever.”
His admission followed reports that his name was among data dumped by hackers that detailed millions of members of the Ashley Madison website.
It was another second major blow to the image of the Duggar family. Discovery Communications-owned network TLC last month cancelled 19 Kids, after disclosures in May that Josh Duggar had sexually abused four of his sisters when he was a teenager, one of whom was under 10 years old at the time.
Duggar resigned from his job at Christian lobbying group Family Research Council.
In Wednesday’s statement, Duggar’s parents said they were “deeply grieved” by the actions of their eldest son.
“His wrong choices have deeply hurt his precious wife and children and have negatively affected so many others. He has also brought great insult to the values and faith we hold dear,” they said.
Josh Duggar and his wife Anna were married in 2008 and have four children. (Reuters)
