Kendra Duggar became emotional in a phone call with her husband Joseph Duggar after her arrest over losing custody of their four children.
Joseph, who has three children, Garrett, Addison, and Brooklyn, and a fourth baby with his wife, called Kendra from the Washington County Jail in Arkansas on March 24.
In a phone call obtained by People magazine, Kendra told her husband, “Friday was probably the hardest day, but it’s weird for me to say that because Wednesday was so damn hard.” (Joseph was arrested on Wednesday, March 18th, and Kendra was taken into custody on Friday, March 20th, but was released a few hours later.)
“But you’re taking my baby away from me, the very person I was meant to pour my life into,” she added.
Joseph agreed, telling Kendra, 27, that her children were her “purpose now.”
In another phone call, Kendra told her incarcerated husband that her children were her biggest concern.
“I’m fighting for my children. They’re my priority right now,” she told him.
Joseph, 31, said he “supports his wife 100%” and that his wife “has to fight for her the most.”
In response, Kendra said, “Through all of this, I want you to know that no matter what happens, who’s going to come first,” adding, “Then we’ll see where the rest takes us and try to put the pieces together.”
Before hanging up, Kendra told her husband that her children loved him too.
In a March 22 phone call obtained by TMZ, Kendra warned Joseph not to trust anyone because he was still in prison.
As Page Six previously reported, Joseph was arrested in Arkansas earlier this month and later transferred to the Bay County Jail in Panama City, Florida.
The Bay County Sheriff’s Office said in a March 18 statement that he was charged with lewd and lascivious conduct with a victim under the age of 12 and lewd and lascivious conduct with a person over the age of 18.
In 2020, the “19 Kids and Counting” alum allegedly touched the genitals of a then-9-year-old girl during a family vacation in Panama City Beach, Florida.
Two days later, Kendra was arrested and both she and her husband were charged with four counts of endangering the welfare of a minor and four counts of false imprisonment over a room with a lock on the outside of the doorknob.
On Tuesday, Joseph pleaded not guilty to child sexual abuse charges and was released on $600,000 bail.
Judge Brantley Clark prohibited Joseph from having unsupervised contact with anyone under 18.
If you or someone you know is affected by any of the issues raised in this article, please call our Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-330-0226.
