Former IBLP member Emilia Elizabeth Anderson she recounts in the series that she was Jane Doe III because she preferred to be identified when she and nine other women sued Gothard in 2016 alleging sexual abuse and harassment.
She recalls how Gothard invited her when she was 14 to drop out of homeschooling and live “indefinitely” on the IBLP headquarters in Chicago. He told her that her father not loved her and had “lost all power over her,” he claims, so Gothard “can be her recent authority.”
Elizabeth describes the evening Gothard took her to his office and was visibly surprised to see the assistant still working, assuming they’d be alone.
Gothard resigned from the IBLP board in March 2014 following an investigation by outside counsel into allegations of sexual misconduct, which ultimately determined that he had acted in an “inappropriate”, if not criminal, manner. When the IBLP shared the investigation’s findings in June 2014, Gothard said in a later deleted statement: “My actions of holding hands, hugging and touching the feet or hair of young women crossed the lines of discretion and were fallacious.”
The now 88-year-old has not responded to E! for comment and declined to comment on the series. He previously denied allegations of sexual abuse.
Plaintiffs withdrew their lawsuit in 2018, but told Recovering Grace (an internet IBLP alumni support community and its homeschooling program, the Advanced Training Institute) that they “don’t recant” their allegations or deny the incalculable damage we imagine has been caused Gothard completed by his deeds and certain teachings”.
Explaining on the show why they stopped pursuing Gothard in court, in addition to the statute of limitations and financial burdens, Elizabeth says: “It’s consistently remembering essentially the most terrifying memories of your life and repeating them over and once again. In the event you resolve to move forward in a case, it is also necessary that you simply realize the emotional burden it will proceed to place on you. Frankly, the associated fee was too high.”
Jinger Duggar, who detailed her break from IBLP in her 2023 memoir, was the one member of her family to apparently comment on Gothard’s legal issues. She tweeted in 2018 that although she was a Christian, “I even have to be honest and true to myself by posting this on Twitter. I do not support Bill Gothard and the Bible Institute [sic] Principles of life in any way, shape or form. I find his “teachings” very questionable.”