The woman who testified against Josh Duggar at his trial before he was ultimately sent to prison has also participated in the documentary that unveils all of The Duggar Family’s secrets.
Bobye Holt and her family were also members of the IBLP church. The same church that the Duggars were members of that was founded by American minister Bill Gothard.
Bobye’s daughter, Kaeliegh Holt Tull, was dating Josh at the time it was learned that he had molested some of his sisters and a family friend. Bobye, at the time, was a trusted friend at the time, and Jim Bob and Michelle turned to the Holt family for guidance after learning what Josh had done.
Years later, after Josh was charged with possessing and downloading child pornography, Bobye became a key witness for the prosecution and testified against Josh in court. Now, Bobye is sharing her story as well in the documentary Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets.
As a result of her role in the documentary, Yahoo! is reporting that Bobye has been granted an order of protection against her husband, Jim Holt. The order was reported filed on April 21, 2023, and it will stay in place for the next 10 years.
And while the protection order was granted just two months ago, which lines up with the timeline of the documentary, the reason for the protection order is not crystal clear. As reports state, Bobye and Jim Holt are still married and Jim himself also participated in the documentary. And according to court documents, divorce proceedings are not on the horizon.
During the documentary, Bobye relived the moment she learned about Josh while he was dating their daughter. “We’d known [Josh] since he was a baby,” Bobye admitted. “March 30, 2003, when we found out, I went out to the field and just bawled,” Jim added. “He had apparently been doing it since the age of 12, but we found out about it when he was 15.”
Despite being friends for years, the Holts began distancing themselves from the Duggars after Michelle admitted to them that they weren’t going to come clean about Josh’s actions until Josh and Kaeliegh were already married.
The creators of the documentary made the decision to discuss Josh’s behaviors when he was a teen in order to show the system that allowed Josh to behave in such a way.