Amy Duggar has been outspoken online about her disgust with her cousin Josh Duggar following his conviction for receiving and possessing child sex abuse materials (CSAM), but her most-recent Instagram post took aim at the person closest to Josh: his wife, Anna.
As The Ashley previously reported, Anna recently wrote a letter to the judge who will be sentencing Josh next week, begging him to show Josh mercy and allow him to return home to her and their seven children as soon as possible.
After the letters went public, Amy blasted Anna (as well as her aunt Michelle Duggar, who also wrote a letter) online for not protecting her children. However, in her newest Instagram post, Amy approached Anna mother-to-mother, imploring Anna to leave Josh and keep their children safe from him.
Amy’s open letter to Anna was praised by two notable people: Kaeleigh Holt Tull— who was “betrothed” to marry Josh as a young teen— and Kaeleigh’s mother, Bobye, whose testimony about Josh’s molestations of his sisters was heard during Josh’s 2021 trial.
“Anna, I feel for you. No woman wants to be in your shoes,” Amy wrote. “You’re faced with an impossible decision and you’re being surrounded by the wrong kind of support.
“You’ve been taught since you were a child that marriage is forever and you prayed for God to send you a partner. You’ve constructed a life and a family with him. You didn’t choose any of this, and your kids certainly didn’t either. I’m not coming after you with some sort of tough love thing. This is what’s simply on my heart and I can’t help but to express it.”
Amy then referenced a letter that Anna’s father, Mike Keller, wrote to the judge in support of Josh.
“It’s no wonder you’re struggling to know what to do to protect your own kids… you’ve obviously never had an example there. That’s awful and I’m so sorry for that.”
Amy then launches into a plea to Anna to leave Josh.
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“If no one else in your life is saying it, I need you to understand that there is no shame in divorcing Josh,” Amy wrote. “Someday your kids will be old enough to understand what kind of guy their father really is. You can’t protect them from the truth for forever!”
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Amy then addressed why she chose to post this letter publicly on social media, rather than just send it to Anna directly, or text it to her. She stated that she wants Anna and Josh’s seven young children to someday be able to see that some of the Duggar family was encouraging Anna to leave Josh.
“I’m saying all of this publicly so that when [your kids] do grow up, they will also know that they had family members shouting from the rooftops that they were worth protecting all along,” Amy wrote. “Your children look up to you so much… Please be the role model they need in their life. [My husband] Dillon and I are more than willing to help you.”
Finally, Amy tells Anna that, if she doesn’t leave Josh, she will be lumped in with him and his crimes.
“Josh has chosen how history will remember him. By staying and supporting him you’re allowing him to choose that for you, too,” she wrote. “And I know standing up to all of this seems impossible now, but as a Mama, your instinct to protect your kids always has to be stronger than your fear.
“The only people you would upset by leaving are the ones willing to sacrifice you and your children’s safety to protect Josh and his secrets.”
Anna was tagged in Amy’s post but has yet to respond publicly. However, Amy’s letter was met with a lot of praise from her followers, particularly Bobye Holt.
“Perfectly said, Amy!” Bobye wrote. “Perfectly said! My heart is heavy this week too. Lord willing, I’ll be at the sentencing, praying for justice to be served.”
As The Ashley previously reported, Josh is due to be sentenced for his crimes on May 25. The minimum sentence he can receive is five years in prison, and the maximum is 20 years. Earlier this month, the prosecutors in the case asked the judge to give Josh the maximum 20-year sentence, while Josh’s defense lawyers pleaded for the minimum five-year sentence.
RELATED STORY: Anna & Michelle Duggar Beg Judge to Have Mercy On Josh Duggar For Sentencing: Josh’s Legal Team Asks For Five-Year Sentence
(Photos: Instagram; TLC)
20 Responses
Anna is too brainwashed at this point to leave. It was still smart of Amy to post this. It reminds me of when my mom would post things on Facebook so my alcoholic aunt’s kids knew that when they were 18 and able to leave they had a place to run. Two of them did. Let’s hope Anna’s kids see this one day and get out too. I could care less about Anna at this point. She’s too far gone on the Fundie Kool-aid.
20 years isn’t long enough.
Unfortunately when you’re surrounded by fundies who choose to turn a blind eye to reality, you ruin all these kids lives. She doesn’t care. God first, then husband, who cares about your kids. This is disgusting. I watched a documentary on Warren Jeffs and this is all it reminded me of. Families blinded and trapped by false prophecies.
Anna is too far gone…she’s never leaving him. I hope her kids learn from her mistakes.
I like how Amy was really writing that statement for Anna’s children. We all know that Anna will never leave Josh. She will stay with him and continue to turn a blind eye. But maybe, when their children grow up, they will find a way out.
Sadly, I don’t think Anna at this point will leave Josh.
It’s been so engrained for her for years that you never divorce for any reason, stand by your man, no matter what.
Like he cheated on her, and she stayed.
She founds out what he did to his sisters, she stayed.
Maybe if she gets kicked off the Jim Bob money train, and has to work 2 minimum wage jobs, just to get by and get away from the cult-like abuse. Maybe time will let her see she really doesn’t need to be treated like this, nor do her kids need to.
I hope when he gets out, his parole is that he can’t live in a home with anyone under 18, maybe for another 10 years.
I just hope Anna has gone through menopause by the time he gets out. 10 years she’ll be in her mid-40s.
And ready for the next rows of babies ? to come again.
I hope that Josh gets at least 10 years, hopefully, Anna will be in menopause and she won’t have any more children with him.
Also, I hope his parole requires him not to live in a house with anyone under the age of 18 for 10 years, and no unsupervised visits with a minor.
You are right she will never leave him. If I’m not mistaken Anna and her father actually knew what he did to his sister’s when they start courting. I don’t know what details were reveled but I swear I remember reading that Jim Bob and Michelle sat down and talked to them about it back then. Which makes it even more disturbing that he father is still in his corner backing him up. Makes you wonder what horrors she grew up with.
Some of her siblings who left the IBLP have talked about how she and 7 siblings lived in abject poverty.
Her dad is a minister to prisoners, like a chaplain, I guess.
They all lived in a tiny trailer, nine people in a trailer, and had no money for food and stuff. The Kellers aren’t really respected in the IBLP community. They ONLY have seven children, they are not business owners, that’s really important in IBLP they don’t rely on others for money. And the Duggars are wealthy and have so many children, and are famous. So like Josh was a catch for the family because his past interactions with women would make him less desirable to the higher echelon, people like the Bates. (Gil Bates is on the BoD of IBLP now.)
I think they thought oh this man preaches to inmates, so he can teach his daughter that criminals can be reformed.
It makes sense why she will never leave him, her father told her whole like we just need to keep giving them JC’s message and they will be saved. ?????
I mean, she’s not wrong.
Amy keeps inserting herself in the Duggar drama
She doesn’t realize her 15 minutes of fame was over years ago.
Good. I was an abused kid, and I wish there’d have been an Amy in my life. She can’t get through to Anna; God help the kids, hopefully she will still be there when the fallout of broken childhood hits. I just turned 40 and trust me, the abuse and family secrets and division of support are upfront, every day. Surviving can be lonely. Bless Amy for being there.
She’s doing nothing but an IG post so in the future (where IG probably won’t be a thing anymore) Josh’s kids will see it. That’s it. She knows Anna won’t divorce Josh EVER, especially since she’ll depend on his family to support her children. She’s just inserting herself after years of stating she doesn’t want anything to do with the Duggars. She’s just a hypocrite, I don’t think she’s being sincere.
To be fair I doubt she has a way to directly contact Anna. Putting it out there publicly like this eliminates the chance of people telling her she had no where else to turn and shows the kids in the future that they did have someone in the family who cared enough about their well-being to speak out against Josh.
While I do agree that Amy has hidden the Duggar coattails I think she is being sincere here. If by some miracle Anna did want to leave Josh and reached out to Amy I think she would help her. I don’t think she’s being a hypocrite here, it’s a serious situation. If it were me in this situation with my cousins I would say a lot of the same things she has said.
In listening to Amy talk she spent a lot of time with the girls there and was like a part of their family until Josh’s first charges arisen. Then family situations changed and she was no longer allowed at Jim Boob’s.
She couldn’t say anything because of shows rules.
IMO, Amy was the “other girl” that we hear so much about. So yes she a right as a close family member of the victims, or as victim herself; wants to save the pedophile kids from him. Wants to show Anna its okay to leave the fundie and survive
I mean she’s his cousin. So she is family.
And she might think that since she was on the show she has a moral obligation to speak out since she unknowingly condone it for so many years.
i mean she IS a duggar so it IS her business ??♀️and unfortunately because they all share the same last name she’s also linked to this same way everyone else is and even if she didn’t speak out people were still blaming her for not doing anything about josh molesting his sisters when she was still a kid herself who didn’t have any idea until everyone else did. even if ig won’t be a thing by then, there’s still articles like this online and they’re gonna know regardless that it was public & she’s only doing this to protect these innocent kids as much as she can & u have to be dense af to have a problem with that
I was (read: am) the “Amy” in my family’s situation. I would damn well do it again, in a heartbeat. I couldn’t do enough to save all of the children in our particular situation. I did insert myself into the situation when others thought, still think, unnecessary. I did take the brunt of the blow when people thought I was merely trying to get attention, being a hypocrite, etc.. I did, at one point, say I didn’t want involved in their drama. Then I realized the extent of the trauma being caused, realized how little support the children had, realized that regardless of the choices adults were making, the children had absolutely none. So I inserted my not so fat foot into the door, and kept it there. I’m a thorn in their side and I will always be there.
Three children are now surrounded by an amount of love and support they couldn’t even dream of. One is dealing with their demons in the best way possible. Sadly, one is no longer with us. Some of my family and friends have since blacklisted me….but I don’t care. More people need to not care about the stigma of being that foot in the door, and consider the potential benefits instead. You’d be surprised how easy (and hard) it can be, to save a life, when you actually give more of a damn about that life than what people think about you for trying.