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Josh Duggar Calls Himself ‘The Biggest Hypocrite,’ Admits Cheating On Wife

Josh Duggar Calls Himself ‘The Biggest Hypocrite,’ Admits Cheating On Wife

By Christie D’zurilla, Los Angeles Times (TNS)

Josh Duggar of 19 Kids and Counting fame has pronounced himself “the biggest hypocrite ever” and admitted to cheating on his wife after it was revealed Wednesday that he had paid accounts with Ashley Madison, the affair-facilitating website that was hacked a month ago.

“I have been the biggest hypocrite ever. While espousing faith and family values, I have been unfaithful to my wife,” the father of four said in a statement posted on the Duggar family’s website Thursday.

“I am so ashamed of the double life that I have been living and am grieved for the hurt, pain and disgrace my sin has caused my wife and family, and most of all Jesus and all those who profess faith in Him.”

In an earlier version of the statement, which has since been replaced on the family website, Josh Duggar said he’d secretly been viewing Internet porn, had become addicted and subsequently had cheated on his wife, Anna.

Credit card and address information was tracked back to Josh Duggar after the hacked information was leaked on the so-called dark web Tuesday. A second batch of Ashley Madison information—the site’s catchphrase is “Life is short. Have an affair”—was dumped on Thursday.

The reality-TV personality appears to have spend nearly $1,000 on monthly subscriptions for two accounts between February 2013 and May 2015, Gawker reported, with screen grabs showing supporting information.

In July, TLC canceled the long-running 19 Kids after it was reported in May that as a minor Josh Duggar had inappropriate contact with five underage girls, four of whom were his sisters. After the story broke, the 27-year-old, who was never arrested or charged, left his post at the Family Research Council, a conservative lobbying group.

“I have brought hurt and a reproach to my family, close friends and the fans of our show with my actions,” he said in the statement Thursday, going on to seemingly acknowledge the work he had been doing at the FRC. “The last few years, while publicly stating I was fighting against immorality in our country I was hiding my own personal failures.”

The Duggars learned of Josh’s Ashley Madison history late Wednesday evening, parents Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar said in introducing their eldest son’s statement. A family source told People on Thursday, “We’re all hunkered down over here. It’s just a mess, it’s a whole mess,” adding that it would be a “practically impossible climb” for Josh to rebound from his current situation.

Josh and Anna Duggar issued statements in May regarding the allegations of inappropriate contact, with her explaining that she’d known since before they were married about “his past teenage mistakes.” Her husband was “someone who had gone down a wrong path and had humbled himself before God and those whom he had offended,” she said. He’d gotten the help he needed, she said, and had changed the direction of his life.

“As I am learning the hard way, we have the freedom to choose our actions, but we do not get to choose our consequences,” Josh Duggar said in his statement. “I deeply regret all the hurt I have caused so many by being such a bad example.”

In addition to credit card numbers and email addresses, the hacked data includes “everything from their name, age, interests, whether they smoke or drink, down to very detailed sexual fantasies, what they enjoy having done to them and what they want to do to others,” Adam McNeil, an intelligence analyst at Malwarebytes, told USA Today.

An analysis of the first data dump showed users’ median age to be around 46, with few users younger than 30. Josh Duggar would, of course, be among those outliers.

Information was also hacked from the site EstablishedMen.com, which is owned by the same company that runs AshleyMadison.com. A group calling itself the Impact Team wants Avid Life Media to shut down the sites.

(c)2015 Los Angeles Times. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Angelina Jolie Has Ovaries, Fallopian Tubes Removed To Thwart Cancer Risk

Angelina Jolie Has Ovaries, Fallopian Tubes Removed To Thwart Cancer Risk

By Christie D’Zurilla, Los Angeles Times (TNS)

As she promised nearly two years ago, Angelina Jolie has had her fallopian tubes and ovaries surgically removed as a preventive move against the cancer that killed her mother.

The surgery, however, came sooner than she’d planned, she explained in a New York Times essay on Tuesday.

The 39-year-old mother of six said her decision-making process gained urgency after a regularly scheduled blood test showed signs that could be an early indicator of cancer. Jolie — whose mother Marceline Bertrand died at 56 of ovarian cancer — had a preventive double mastectomy in April 2013 after testing positive for the BRCA-1 gene, which indicates a high risk of developing breast cancer.

Bertrand had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer at age 49, Jolie said.

“I went through what I imagine thousands of other women have felt,” she wrote. “I told myself to stay calm, to be strong, and that I had no reason to think I wouldn’t live to see my children grow up and to meet my grandchildren.

“I called my husband (Brad Pitt) in France, who was on a plane within hours.”

Further testing and a surgeon’s exam of Jolie’s ovaries came up negative for a tumor.

“To my relief, I still had the option of removing my ovaries and fallopian tubes and I chose to do it,” she wrote. “I did not do this solely because I carry the BRCA1 gene mutation, and I want other women to hear this. A positive BRCA test does not mean a leap to surgery. I have spoken to many doctors, surgeons and naturopaths. There are other options …. The most important thing is to learn about the options and choose what is right for you personally.”

Jolie said she’d been consulting with Western and Eastern physicians since getting the mastectomy, but thought she had months left to make a choice — until getting the scary test results. Finally, she chose her procedure: a laparoscopic bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, which happened last week.

“There was a small benign tumor on one ovary, but no signs of cancer in any of the tissues,” she revealed in her essay. She’s on hormone replacement therapy, including progesterone to reduce risk of uterine cancer, and said she chose to keep her uterus because uterine cancer is not in her family history.

“The beautiful thing about such moments in life is that there is so much clarity,” she said, referring to her reaction to the results of the blood test. “You know what you live for and what matters. It is polarizing, and it is peaceful.”

She’s gone public with her journey — as she did before with the double-mastectomy — to make other women aware that in this health situation and others, a person can “seek advice, learn about the options and make choices that are right for you. Knowledge is power.”

(c)2015 Los Angeles Times, Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

Photo: Gage Skidmore, Flickr