“Duck Dynasty” star Jep Robertson says he was sexually abused as a child

He shared his story on Entertainment Tonight and in his forthcoming memoir

Published June 9, 2015 9:39PM (EDT)

Jep Robertson       (AP/Jeff Bottari)
Jep Robertson (AP/Jeff Bottari)

In an interview on Entertainment Tonight, “Duck Dynasty” star Jep Robertson says that he was molested by an older girl on a school bus when he was six years old.

"Back then the high school students would ride on the same bus as the grade school,” Robertson told ET. "There was an older girl that was just real mean. I think … that she was just terribly abused herself. But yeah, it was a lot of things that took place – scary stuff. It was tough.”

The 37-year-old father of four said that he tried to keep the abuse a secret from his family. "I don't know if I necessarily consciously wanted to [keep it a secret],” he said. "I was more embarrassed. I think in the end I didn't want my mom and dad to think they did anything wrong, and they didn't. It was just one of those things that happened, and I think it took me a long time to realize what had happened and how it affected me."

At the time, Jep said he didn't want to go to school and was absent frequently. "My mom always thought I was sick and there was definitely other reasons I didn't want to go to school," he said. "I think for a while I just tried to bury it so deep that I kind of forgot about it for a while. I think God put that on me for meeting someone like [my wife] Jessica who went through some hard times herself and I think it made our relationship stronger once we talked about it."

Robertson writes more extensively about abuse in his forthcoming book, penned along with his wife Jessica titled "The Good, the Bad, and the Grace of God: What Honesty and Pain Taught Us About Faith, Family, and Forgiveness.” In an excerpt from a chapter of the book titled “The School Bus,” obtained by ET, Robertson goes into further detail, writing:

"An older girl started sitting next to me. She seemed sweet at first. She'd come sit beside me, like a motherly figure almost. I remember her being sweet and taking care of me. I liked to sit in the back so she'd come sit with me. After a while the girl started doing strange things ... She'd take my hands and push them up under her shirt and tell me I was tickling her. Then she started making me pull down my pants. It was awkward. I didn't know what was going on, but I knew something wasn't right."


By Anna Silman

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