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As you’ve no doubt heard by now, the Duggar family was hit with yet another major scandal this week.

And this could be the one that finally brings their multimillion-dollar media empire crashing to the ground.

On Thursday, fans were shocked to learn that Josh Duggar had been arrested by federal agents and held without bail.

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It was widely assumed that the arrest had something to do with the raid on a car dealership owned by Josh that took place in December of 2019.

At the time, that raid — the cause of which was never revealed by the government — was widely reported as being connected with Josh’s hiring practices.

So it came as the worst kind of surprise when it was revealed today that Josh had been arrested on child pornography charges.

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If convicted, the controversial former reality star faces up to 40 years in prison.

Fans who have been watching the family closely have long suspected that something was amiss.

Usually, the Duggars are eager to share news of any courtships, weddings, pregnancies, and births within the Counting On clan.

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After all, it was the size of the family that first got them noticed by reality TV producers, and it was the curiosity surrounding their bizarre courtship rituals and child-rearing practices that kept viewers tuning in.

So when the family went offline and stopped sharing updates about their personal lives, fans promptly concluded that something was very, very wrong.

Jed Duggar married Katey Nakatsu earlier this month without anyone in his family acknowledging the relationship prior to the wedding day.

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And after more than a decade of searching for the right guy, Jana Duggar entered a courtship with Stephen Wissmann, but again, the entire family has remained silent on the subject.

But perhaps the strangest secret was the fact that Anna Duggar is pregnant with her seventh child.

The Duggars teach their daughters that procreation and motherhood are their sole reasons for being.

Photo via Instagram

So keeping a pregnancy under wraps well into the third trimester was a highly unusual move.

It wasn’t until last week that Anna confirmed her pregnancy, and now, fans are suspicious of the timing.

Would the Duggars sink so low as to use a pregnancy to distract from a criminal sex scandal?

Anna Renee Keller Duggar
(TLC)

As unpleasant as that might be to contemplate, it looks as though that’s exactly what happened.

Never in all the family’s years in the spotlight have they waited so long to reveal a pregnancy.

And since they’ve probably known about the charges against Josh for over 18 months, it stands to reason that they knew an arrest was imminent.

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So timing the announcement to coincide with this week’s scandalous news seems like a disturbingly likely possibility.

Some have even gone so far as to suggest that Anna and Josh decided to have a seventh child because they knew that he might soon be going away for the rest of his natural life.

That’s almost too disturbing to contemplate, but again, the Duggars prioritize passing on genetic material over just about everything else in life, so we wouldn’t put anything past them when it comes to breeding.

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Anna doesn’t speak about Josh publicly very often, which is a good policy for a number of reasons.

After all, the last five years of the guy’s life have consisted of one scandal after another.

And to say that his behavior has been indefensible would be putting it very mildly.

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In 2015, the world learned that Josh had molested five young girls — four of whom were his sisters — while he was still in his teens.

Shortly thereafter, it was revealed that Josh tried to cheat on his wife using the affair-facilitating website Ashley Madison.

Anna decided to stay with Josh despite this string of scandals, but she’s wisely decided not to try and defend him publicly.

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But interestingly, Anna bucked that trend earlier this week when a follower pointed out that Josh does not appear to have worked in several years.

"How do you afford all those kids? Does Josh even work?" the Instagram user asked.

"Yes, my husband is a diligent worker and provides well for our family," Anna uncharacteristically replied.

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It’s still possible, of course, that this is all coincidental, and Anna was completely caught off guard by the news of Josh’s arrest.

But we doubt it.

The members of the Duggar family are no strangers to scandal, and it seems that they’ve taken an "all hands on deck" approach to this latest shocker.

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We’ve predicted the demise of the family’s media empire in the past and been proven wrong.

But if Josh is convicted, it’s almost impossible to imagine that any network or other media outlet would willingly work with them.’

Currently, the 33-year-old is still in federal custody, and if he’s released on bond, he will not be permitted to return home.

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The judge in his case has ruled that if Josh is let out of jail, he must live with a custodian who will promise the court not to have any children in the home during Josh’s period of occupancy.

Again, that’s if he’s released — it’s possible that he’ll be denied bail and forced to remain behind bars until his trial.

Whatever the case, you can be sure that Anna and the rest of Josh’s family are once again going through hell because of his actions.

We’ll have further updates on this developing story as more information becomes available.