"Duck Dynasty" favorites Jase and Missy Robertson have weighed in on the scandal surrounding former "19 Kids and Counting" star Josh Duggar, who admitted to struggling with pornography and cheating on his wife, Anna, just before their sixth wedding anniversary.
Speaking to ET Online, Missy and Jase suggested that forgiving and staying married are not mutually exclusive options.
"As far as the relationship, that's gotta be her decision whether or not she wants to go on without him," Missy told the news outlet. "She certainly has that right, because he interrupted their marriage with those affairs, but forgiveness is not really a choice, you know, if you want forgiveness from God."
Added Jase, "You can forgive somebody, but that doesn't mean there are not consequences for your actions," he said.
As reported by the Gospel Herald, Josh, 27, Josh entered into rehab in August for "long-term treatment" following the discovery that he maintained two accounts on the infidelity and cheating website Ashley Madison. The subscriptions appear to have been active from February 2013 until May 2015, during a time when Jim Bob and Michelle's oldest son served as executive director of the Family Research Council, a conservative lobbying group in Washington D.C. that seeks "to champion marriage and family as the foundation of civilization, the seedbed of virtue, and the wellspring of society."
Less than three months earlier, Josh also confessed to molesting five underage girls, including two of her sisters when she was still a teenager. The scandal caused the cancelation of their popular reality TV show, "19 Kids And Counting".
When asked whether Anna should forgive Josh for his actions, Missy responded, "It's gonna be hard to stand in front of Jesus on judgment day and say, 'I expect forgiveness, but I'm not gonna forgive. And God teaches against that. He says, 'You must forgive' -- and it's not easy."
Meanwhile, Anna, who recently gave birth to the couple's fourth child, is reportedly taking the time to recover from the shocking discovery.
"She's definitely a victim in this whole situation," Missy said. "And, yes, [Josh] made some wrong decisions. But that's something that, at the end of the day, when the cameras go away, that's their life. They're going to have to deal with it themselves and get past it and try to savor some of the experiences they had and memories, and also make a new life for themselves -- whether it's together or apart."
ET notes that while Jase and Missy have remained faithful in their 25 years of marriage, the couple references marital struggles between Jase's older brother, Alan, and his wife, Lisa, in their new book, Blessed, Blessed... Blessed.
"'Lisa was running around on my brother and I was like, 'Al, cut her loose,'" Jase said of Lisa's 14-month affair. "He chose to forgive her and welcome her back, and I was mad about that for probably about three or four years. In fact, so bad, me and Lisa, I didn't even speak to her.
"In a way, that's OK," Jase continued. "I was hurt because my brother was hurt. He decided to forgive her, bring her back, against my advice -- I was like, 'That's just stupid.' In their case, it worked out. She has really turned into a great woman of God."
However, the couple acknowledged that while Al chose to forgive his wife, "there's different circumstances for different people."
"[Alan] had every right to sever that relationship," Missy says, "and God says that you do! You don't have to stay together because of [religion]. But it's been wonderful that [Al and Lisa] have."
The couple also explained that Lisa's affair negatively affected their own marriage: "Due in part to Lisa's unfaithfulness to Alan," Missy writes, "Jase developed some problems trusting me around other men and had bouts of jealousy that we had to work through for years in our marriage."
