New docuseries looks to 'expose the truth' about the Duggar family
Topics: Film and TV, Documentaries, Amazon Prime
Gregory Robinson
Featured Image Credit: Amazon Prime Video
Topics: Film and TV, Documentaries, Amazon Prime
A new documentary is set to ‘expose the truth’ about the Duggar family and their conservative religious faith and lifestyle.
Best known for being the focus of the once wholesome TLC docu-series 19 Kids and Counting, the family will once again be the focus of a series but this time it will delve into their controversial fall from grace.
The upcoming docu-series, Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets, was first teased in trailer released by Amazon Prime Video.
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Due to premiere next month, the four-episode series ‘seeks to expose the truth beneath the wholesome Americana surface of reality TV’s favourite mega-family,’ according to a press release.
The synopsis continues: “While details of the family and their scandals unfold, we realise they’re part of an insidious, much-larger threat already in motion, with democracy itself in peril.”
Several members of the Duggar family, including Jill Dillard, appear in the documentary.
“There’s a story that’s going to be told and I would rather be the one telling it,” she says in the trailer.
Dillard, the third child of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, identified herself as one of the girls who was molested by Joshua Duggar, her older brother and the Duggar’s eldest child.
After he was reported as having molested multiple teenage girls, including four of his siblings, TLC cancelled 19 Kids and Counting in July 2015. He was arrested by U.S. Marshals on charges of receiving and possessing child pornography and was found guilty on all charges on December 9, 2021.
In May 2022, he was sentenced to over 12 years in prison.
He was also fined USD $10,000 and ordered to undergo ‘sex offense-specific treatment program’.
Duggar's lawyer Justin K. Gelfand said in a statement to the outlet he was pleased his client didn’t receive a 20 year sentence.
“We look forward to continuing the fight on appeal," he added.
A spin-off series, titled Counting On, debuted in 2015 without the involvement of Josh. However, the spin-off was cancelled in 2021.
The new Amazon Prime documentary will explore the ‘controversial organisation’ behind the family, The Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP).
Documentary filmmakers interviewed a number of ex-IBLP survivors who have bravely come forward to reveal the ‘abusive practices’ that kept them ‘in a living nightmare,’ according to the synopsis.
Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets will be released on Amazon Prime on June 2.