Sadie Robertson has weighed in on the sex scandal surrounding Josh Duggar, revealing she is praying for the family of the disgraced "19 Kids and Counting" star and encouraging the media to understand that Josh's actions do not reflect his family's beliefs.
"It honestly makes me really sad that they're having to go through this, because it's one thing to go through it as a family, and it would be just as hard for them if they weren't in the limelight, but ... everybody's talking about it, and that just adds that many more comments, that many more opinions," the 18-year-old model and bestselling author told People Magazine. "We've been there, it's hard."
As reported by the Gospel Herald, Josh Duggar last week confessed to struggling with a pornography addiction and cheating on his wife, Anna, amid reports he had active accounts on Ashley Madison, a website created to facilitate adulterous affairs.
"I have been the biggest hypocrite ever. While espousing faith and family values, I have secretly over the last several years been viewing pornography on the internet and this became a secret addiction and I became unfaithful to my wife," he wrote at the time.
The shocking revelation came less than three months after it was revealed that the father-of-four once molested five underage girls, leading to the cancellation of the Duggar family's hit TLC show.
"It's been kind of a secret for a long time, and everybody knows, when secrets come out, it's not fun. Secrets are hard. You shouldn't keep secrets," Sadie told People. "At this point it is what it is, and so they're just going to have to make the best out of it. ... If they can forgive him, it will all work out."
The "Dancing With the Stars" alum also explained that she is able to empathize with the Duggars, as her own family faced significant backlash following comments made last year by her grandfather, Phil Robertson.
"They almost canceled Duck Dynasty whenever my grandpa said the things that he said, and that would have been, in my opinion, not a very good decision, because that was putting one man's words in all of our mouths," she explains. "Josh Duggar, that's not his whole family. His whole family didn't do that. He made a mistake."
While Sadie may be extending grace to the former "19 Kids and Counting" star, Anna Duggar's brother, Daniel Keller, recently issued a less charitable response.
After Josh's sister, Jessa Seewald, posted a Bible verse about forgiveness on her Facebook page earlier this week, Keller felt inclined to respond.
In her post, Seewald quoted from 1st John 1:8, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
Keller took issue with the passage, and according to Us Weekly, commented, "You have to confess and forsake your sin to have mercy. Not sin confess and repeat." He added, "Confessing and getting caught are two different things...You want to know what happens when you cover ur sin maybe you should go read ur bible instead of beating people over the head with it."
He continued, "I know that my sin sent Jesus to the cross just as did josh sin...But think for a min about the victims. Tell me how you would feel if someone cheated on your sister and brought so much disgrace to you and ur family. And when you done that. Go to h*ll you p----."
Keller claimed that his parents are hoping Anna will stay with her husband because they are "more interested in how there (sic) daughter getting a divorce will make [them] look then (sic) they are in trying to truly get josh some help and getting Anna and the kids out of there till he has gotten that help."
