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Amy Duggar King is unveiling the forbidden words from her cousins’ household.
Recently, the Duggar cousin has detailed “twisted” family moments and revealed dark family secrets that came as a shock to some of her own family.
But the most sinister aspects of the Duggar cult were never the scandals. It was what the cult displayed right out in the open.
Amy is detailing the rules that helped Jim Bob and Michelle police the words, attitudes, and even thoughts of their children — and guests.
Amy Duggar King remembers which normal, everyday words were ‘forbidden’
During a recent Group Text with Melissa Rivers interview, Amy Duggar recalled Duggar rules.
Some things are infamous — the bizarre and heavily gendered rules for clothes, “courting” and “side-hugging” nonsense, and the hideous perm that Michelle has sported over the years.
But much of this was a veneer — hyper-visible rules for TLC viewers to spot so that they don’t think too much about everything else.
There is more to being in a nightmarish cult than wearing a uniform of frumpy clothes.
Like many similar toxic groups in history, the Duggar household forbade verbal negativity — policing how people speak and express themselves to enforce a sickly saccharine tone.
“You can’t even say, like, ‘I hate tomatoes’ when you were over there,” Amy shared. “The word ‘hate’ wasn’t allowed!”
Some non-cult households push for weird positivity — but the Duggars took things even further.
“The word ‘dislike’ wasn’t allowed,” Amy revealed. “Nothing was negative there in that home.”
She continued: “So [when I was there] I just had to put on a mask that I was happy and shiny and everything is good and happy and lovely.”
Amy summarized by emphasizing that there were “just a lot of rules over there.”
Amy Duggar appeared on Marriage Boot Camp with her husband, Dillon King. (Image Credit: WEtv)The Duggar children didn’t know that life could be better
According to Amy Duggar, her cousins were “the most happiest children” growing up. Or, at least, they acted like it.
Not only did they have no choice but to smile, but they also didn’t know what real happiness could be like.
They’d never tasted freedom and had never really seen it, so they didn’t know that they were missing things like self-expression.
“They were making bread, and they were playing chess, and there was classical music playing every single day in that home,” Amy recalled.
That sounds almost picture-perfect. And that, it seems, was the goal: a household overflowing with smiling, hyper-positive children. This is not a path to healthy development or happiness, but gosh, it sure would make a nice postcard.
During a family gathering, Michelle Duggar stares creepily into the camera. (Image Credit: YouTube)Even if one were to avoid discussing the broader realities of growing up in an abusive cult, it is impossible to not delve into Josh Duggar’s multiple scandals.
In 2015, the world learned that he had cheated on his wife. Then came the real horror — that he had molested 5 young girls as a teen, including four of his own sisters.
And, of course, that his parents had hidden this evil from authorities, and allowed his crimes to run out the clock on the statue of limitations.
But Amy emphasized that, despite the scope of the scandal, everyone in the family — including his victims — faced the expectation to forgive and move on.
She explained: “If something happens in one of these IBLP families, you have to forgive quickly and move on.”
For ‘Shiny Happy People’ Season 2, Amy Duggar King acknowledges that she received blowback for her participation in the first season. (Image Credit: Prime Video)Cult don’t help people to heal, because healthy people might break free
“Honestly,” Amy Duggar continued, victims often do “not deal with your hurt because you’re not allowed to go to counseling.”
She explained: “You have to literally talk to someone within the IBLP in order to have any kind of mentor or therapy … but there’s no meat to that conversation. You’re not actually receiving healing.”
Amy characterized: “I think they put on a happy, shiny mask. I think they did what they had to do.”
She went on: “They had a part to play. They had a character to play. And they did it very well.”
Ultimately, Amy concluded by emphasizing her love for her cousins — even those who aren’t so close to her anymore.
“I don’t have any ill feelings towards any of them. I still love them,” she emphasized. “I say in my book that I wish I could connect with them. I’m here. There’s an open door if they ever need me, you know? But I’m going to share truth in my book. And that’s what I did.”