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From bad to worse. Amid the release of Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets, former Duggar friend and documentary participant Bobye Holt has been granted an order of protection against husband Jim Holt, according to online records viewed by In Touch.
The order was filed on April 21, 2023, and was closed with the protection order being fulfilled. It will stay in place for the next 10 years, but the circumstances leading to the legal move are unknown. No divorce proceedings have been filed between Bobye and Jim as of publication.
Jim and Bobye did not immediately respond to In Touch’s request for comment.
Bobye and Jim made waves after they participated in the bombshell documentary released on June 1, telling their firsthand stories about the Duggar family. Having raised their own children alongside Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, the Holt couple began distancing themselves from the famous TLC family after they learned about Josh Duggar’s molestation of his younger sisters. Josh just so happened to be dating Bobye and Jim’s eldest daughter at the time they were made aware of the situation.
“We’d known him since he was a baby,” Bobye said of Josh, with Jim – who has known Jim Bob since middle school – adding that he regrets ever being a part of the family’s television presence to this day. “March 30, 2003, when we found out, I went out to the field and just bawled,” Jim recounted of discovering Josh’s past. “He had apparently been doing it since the age of 12, but we found out about it when he was 15.”
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Jim and Bobye added that when they confronted Jim Bob and Michelle about their son’s actions, Michelle said that they had no intention of telling the Holt family about Josh’s past until after he and their daughter were married. The relationship between the families appeared to devolve from there.
Before she agreed to share her experiences with the world as part of the documentary that also features Jill Dillard and Amy King, Bobye testified as part of Josh’s child pornography trial in November 2021. In addition to providing context about her relationship with Jim Bob, Michelle and their children, Bobye recalled when she discovered Josh’s criminal habits.
An Arkansas jury found Josh guilty on one count of receiving child pornography and one count of possessing child pornography the following month. A judge later dropped the latter charge at his May 2022 sentencing, and the reality TV alum is serving out his prison sentence at Federal Correctional Institute (FCI) Seagoville in Texas. He is scheduled to be released on October 10, 2032.
Of including Josh’s story in the documentary, codirector and executive producer Julia Willoughby Nason told In Touch exclusively that the team wanted to touch upon the structures that allowed Josh to behave in such manners but keep the focus on those he targeted.
“We wanted to be sensitive to everybody involved and really focus on the survivors,” Julia said. “Josh has his own story to tell, but I think it’s also important for him to reflect on over his time away in prison right now. And everybody in this system seems like victims of abuse because the system itself is just damaging to people’s individual freedoms.”
