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Amy Duggar is opening up about an unexpected run-in with her cousin Jana Duggar after years of publicly criticizing their family.
“I saw Jana just the other day, and I didn’t know it was her,” Amy, 40, told host Carrie Berk on the “Fire Chats: The Mindfire Pod” podcast on Monday, October 26.
Amy has cut ties with her Uncle Jim Bob Duggar, Aunt Michelle Duggar and their 19 children due to their association with the controversial Institute in Basic Life Principles religious organization, as well as the family’s legal woes.
During her podcast appearance, Amy revealed that she and Jana, 36, had very little to say to one another when they recently came face-to-face in a store.
“[Jana’s] son [Archie] was rocking in a chair, and she had her back to me. I said, ‘Oh my gosh, what a sweet little boy.’ She turned around, and it was Jana, at this store,” Amy recalled. “I hadn’t seen Jana in more than 10 years. I was like, ‘Uh, Jana,’ and she was like, ‘Hello.’ I said, ‘Hi,’ and we just walked off. We didn’t say anything to each other.”
She went on, “We have nothing to say, and it’s really sad to say that. But family can be chosen. I don’t know if you can tell, Carrie, but I’ve got a smile on my face the size of Texas right now because I don’t have to live like that. … I even told her, ‘I hope you’re doing well,’ and she said, ‘Thanks.’ I just kept on walking.”
Berk, 23, asked Amy what she would have really wanted to say to her cousin at that moment if she wasn’t “being nice.”
“I would have probably said, ‘I haven’t seen you in a really long time, and I really hope you stand up for what is right. It’s not too late. I hope you get a backbone,’” she declared.
Amy has been particularly outspoken about cousin Josh, 38, being convicted of receiving and possessing child sexual abuse material in 2021.
Josh is serving a 12-year prison sentence at FCI Elkton in Ohio but has maintained his innocence and has filed multiple appeals. (He is currently scheduled to leave prison in February 2033, though the date has previously been pushed back.)
Amy reacted incredulously to Josh’s continued appeals during her latest podcast appearance, suggesting he should “give it a rest already.”
“Here’s what I think: Narcissistic people don’t like to be wrong. They don’t like someone questioning their character and making them look like they’re this horrible person, and they don’t think they are,” she told Berk. “This is all what narcissistic people do. This is textbook, exactly the way a narcissist handles the situation.”
Amy previously weighed in on her cousin Joseph Duggar and his wife Kendra Duggar‘s legal trouble as well. The couple were charged with four counts of endangering the welfare of a minor in the second degree and four counts of false imprisonment in the second degree following a safety inspection at their home in March. (Joseph, 31, and Kendra, 28, signed a plea deal in August that could see the charges dropped if they maintain good behavior and commit no other criminal offenses for one year. They will also be required to pay a fine totaling $1,850.)
Joseph faces separate charges of lewd and lascivious behavior involving molestation of a victim less than 12 years old and lewd and lascivious behavior conducted by a person 18 years or older after he allegedly touched a 9-year-old girl inappropriately on a Panama City, Florida, vacation with her family in 2020. Joseph pleaded not guilty and requested a jury trial before being released on a $600,000 bond in March.
Amy claimed in July that she’d spoken with Joseph’s alleged victim in a phone call where she tried to “give her hope.”
“I said, ‘This doesn’t have to destroy you. It really truly doesn’t,’” she shared on the “Sarah Fraser Show” podcast. “I just tried to offer her encouragement. I told her that if she ever just needed a safe place to talk, that I’m here.”
The Duggar family has not responded to Amy’s various public comments.
If you or someone you know is experiencing child abuse, call or text Child Help Hotline at 1-800-422-4453. If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).
