“The Talk” host Sheryl Underwood got emotional while talking about the Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar interview with Megyn Kelly on Wednesday.
The host, a victim herself of sexual abuse as a child, blasted the Duggars for how they handled their eldest son Josh’s molestation of five underage girls, including four of their daughters.
Tearing up while talking about Jessa Seewald and Jill Dillard, two of the daughters who came forward as victims, Underwood blamed the parents for not doing more to protect their children from abuse.
“I went through that [at] 3, 4, 5 years old …. I didn’t sleep. I learned how to stay up as long as I could. I may sleep at school, because nobody is going to protect me, so I had to protect myself,” Underwood said.
The host continued, “Aisha, you said that it didn’t help [the Duggars] to do this interview. What it really did was it helped us, the world, to see what happens to people when they’re in some type of family structure when the people you’re supposed to trust to protect you seem to be co-conspirator in your violation.”
“Families have got to protect families,” she said. “And don’t rationalize violation.”
In their interview on Tuesday’s episode of “The Kelly File,” Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar defended their handling of the situation. “Looking back,” Jim Bob said, “we did the best we could under the circumstances.”