NEW YORK — Two of reality TV’s Duggar sisters who were fondled by their older brother when they were kids said they weren’t even aware it had happened until he confessed and their parents told them about it.

Jill and Jessa Duggar, part of the Arkansas family featured in TLC’s “19 Kids and Counting,” were among four sisters Josh Duggar touched inappropriately a dozen years ago, when he was a teenager. They talked about it with Fox News Channel’s Megyn Kelly in an interview that aired Friday.

Jessa Duggar said her brother was “a young boy in puberty” who was “a little too curious about girls.”

After the fondling, the sisters said, their parents restricted the children from playing games like hide and seek and placed locks on bedrooms where the girls and boys slept separately. Jill Duggar said she was 12 when the abuse occurred, and Jessa Duggar said she was 9 or 10. Both women are now married.

Jessa Duggar said that she wanted to defend her brother against people who call him a child molester, pedophile or rapist. She said people can get angry at her for saying this is overboard, “but I can say this because I was one of the victims.”