EXCLUSIVE: Joseph Duggar Whines About Vulgar Inmates in Jail During Call With Wife Kendra — As Disgraced TV Star Could Face Life Behind Bars for Child Molestation Charges
Joseph Duggar complained about his 'vulgar' fellow jail inmates.
April 1 2026, Published 4:20 p.m. ET
Joseph Duggar found it hard to sleep while in jail on charges of sexually molesting a minor.
The former 19 Kids and Counting star routinely griped about his loud and vulgar cellmates during phone calls with his disgraced wife, Kendra, which RadarOnline.com has obtained.
Kendra Duggar's Daily Check In
Joseph Duggar spent more than a week in jail while waiting to be transferred to Florida.
Joseph, 31, had been housed in the Washington County jail in Arkansas for over a week, as he waited to be shipped off to Bay County, Florida, to face the molestation charges.
Kendra, 27, called him daily to check in, often asking how he slept. The answer was always the same: "Miserably."
"Most of the nights, they have a light on in my room the whole night, so it's hard to sleep," Joseph said during one call.
He went on to describe some of his more...interesting neighbors.
"The guy in one of the holding cells next door, he's been throwing a tantrum all day," Joseph shared. "It’s almost entertaining except that he’s pretty vulgar, so I was like, I’m just going to focus on my bible reading."
Joseph Duggar's Nightmare Nights
He finally arrived and made his first court appearance on March 30.
The loud inmates didn't make subsequent nights any easier for the strict bible follower.
"I didn’t get much (sleep) last night, there were some tantrums happening," Joseph told Kendra on another call. "All day yesterday, there was one guy having this whole tantrum thing.
"I was kind of waiting until he went to sleep – he got all processed through, and then I went to sleep for just a little while. I don’t know how long, really.
"But then this other guy was throwing a fit for two to three hours throughout the night. He was just talking really loudly, and they're having to de-escalate him the whole time."
"And every other word was the 'F-word' type thing," the former reality star added.
No Sympathy Here
Joseph Duggar bonded out following his court appearance.
If Joseph was looking for sympathy, he would find little online, where critics in a Duggar Reddit chat room were appalled by his complaints.
"The crime Joe confessed to is also 'pretty vulgar,'" one person blasted, as another scoffed: "Vulgar? Sir, are you aware of your charges?"
One lamented, "Imagine being a person who believes saying the F word is worse than child molestation."
A fourth person made a different comparison: "It's like he's telling her about the silly things that are happening at his summer camp."
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More Charges to Face
Wife Kendra Duggar was arrested on child endangerment charges on March 20.
As Radar reported, after finally being transferred to Florida, Joseph made his first court appearance on Tuesday, March 31. He offered a "not guilty" plea, as his bond was set at $600,000.
Joseph was also ordered to have no contact with the alleged victim and must have supervised contact with any other minors, including his own children. And if found guilty, he could be sentenced to life behind bars.
An unnamed person came to bail him out later in the day, but he and his wife continue to face separate child endangerment charges in Arkansas, after a routine inspection found the couple had allegedly placed locks on the outside of their children's bedroom doors.
Following the discovery, officials with the Department of Child and Family Services (DCFS) removed the children from the couple's care.
