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"Duck Dynasty" star Jep Robertson opens up to ET about his childhood sexual abuse. Appearing alongside his wife Jessica ahead of the release of their upcoming book "The Good, the Bad, and the Grace of God: What Honesty and Pain Taught Us About Faith, Family, and Forgiveness", Jep says he was sexually molested by an older girl when he was six years old.

"Basically, I was young. I was 6 and it was on a school bus and it was an older girl," Jep shares, "Back then the high school students would ride on the same bus as the grade school. There was this girl there that was just real mean...I don't know, but it was a lot of things took place -- scary stuff. It was tough."

He adds, "I didn't want to go to school. I had a lot of absences. My mom always thought I was sick and there was definitely other reasons I didn't want to go to school. 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."

Jep details the abuse in his book, writing, "An older girls 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."

Jep tells the site that he couldn't talk openly with his parents about the incident. "I don't know if I necessarily consciously wanted to [keep it a secret]," he shares, "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 effected me."

"Like I've said before I don't think anything that happened to me made me do anything bad. I hear people say that. I do think it affected the way I look at certain things," he continues, "I was really scared of girls and just women in general, but I think God had a plan for that. I know it sounds weird but it's helped me now that I have a bunch of girls. I think it helps us really communicate with them on what's right and what's wrong -- where you should be touched or not be touched. It's a tough thing to go through, but you just kind of live and go though it and make the most of it."

Jep's revelation comes amidst Josh Duggar's child molestation scandal. He and his wife offer advice to the Duggars family. Jep says, "I don't really know them so I don't know what's in their hearts. I think we as a family just stuck together and prayed a lot. At some point I think you got to get a tough skin and no matter what anybody says about you, you just got to be like, 'We're just going to keep doing what we do.' "

"And I think that's what they're doing," Jessica adds, "I think they're staying close-knit and I think they'll be fine, but it'll be a long road."