Josh Duggar Points Finger At Mom Michelle Duggar After Conviction Fallout

In 2022, Josh Duggar was convicted of possessing child abuse materials and sentenced to 151 months in prison. Sadly, he doesn’t think he’s the only one to blame for bringing himself to this sorry state.

In a string of messages retrieved and published by PEOPLE, we find that the dad of seven believes that his mother had a hand in his sentencing.

Josh Duggar Accuses Mother of “Directly” Affecting His Life

In 2022, Josh Duggar was locked away, never to be seen again until we ring in 2032. Now, unless he strongly appeals his case, the ruling stands.

And we know that he’s definitely not okay with this, since he’s been making attempt after attempt to have the ruling thrown out. His argument was that the disturbing files were not downloaded by him, but a friend that he shares his system with.

“I feel like you just don’t receive criticism or take admission for your own actions THAT HAVE DIRECTLY AFFECTED [sic] MY LIFE, including in this situation,” he wrote in the message to his mother at the time.

“I just think you don’t get it,” he continued in the message published by PEOPLE on May 5, 2026. “You don’t understand how you have hurt me and you keep trying to make yourselves ‘look good’ instead of trying to be concerned about your responses to my charges or anything else in my life.”

After explaining that his anger towards her stems from her not believing his claims that he is innocent, he accused her of choosing “public statements and pr work to save shows and public images” and placing these things “above family relationships.”

Taking the high moral ground, Josh admonished her, saying, “consider your role and change so that other children are not in the same situations later.”

Per the outlet, there was no evidence that Michelle directly answered to this message. However, she has shared a message of support for Josh, saying that she loves him.

Michelle Duggar isn’t the only one who has received Josh’s criticisms, as his 18 siblings have all had an equal share of it.

“[F]amily members continuing to judge and condemn, saying hurtful things is so hard to deal with,” he complained in another text to his father.

Be sure to catch up on everything happening with the Duggars right now. Come back here often for all the Counting On Duggars spoilers, news, and updates.