Jill Duggar Dillard says family’s strict rules, alleged deception led to estrangement

After years of showing on fact TV because the doting participants of the Duggar circle of relatives, Jill Duggar Dillard and her husband Derick Dillard are talking out in opposition to what they are saying used to be years of manipulation and greed.

The couple spoke to “Nightline” following the discharge of Duggar Dillard’s new tell-all memoir “Counting the Cost,” and published information about the pressures she feels her folks, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, placed on them when the truth display “19 Kids and Counting” used to be at the air.

The display’s healthy veneer masked a dangerous tradition of regulate, the couple mentioned.

“Anyone who is making decisions for themselves that the parents don’t give their blessing, that’s seen as rebellious. So even if you’re an adult, even if you’ve been an adult for a long time, you’re married with kids, if your parents don’t give their blessing, then you’re not honoring them,” Duggar Dillard informed “Nightline.”

The display targeted across the conservative Christian circle of relatives, their relationships and different day-to-day lives, and their strict upbringing on the entirety from how they dressed to “courting.”

Duggar Dillard used to be a youngster when the display began and would pass on to celebrity within the derivative “Jill and Jessa: Counting On,” together with her sister Jessa.

Duggar Dillard filmed over 200 episodes and over a dozen specials together with her circle of relatives and he or she contends that she and her siblings by no means noticed any cash from it.

She wrote in her e-book that she gained a $175,000 take a look at after she and her husband faced Jim Bob Duggar and fought for the cash.

“People would say…, I’m so glad the girls are getting something, …and people didn’t know that [the show] was called ‘Jill and Jessa Counting On,’ but Jill and Jessa, and their families aren’t getting any kind of financial benefit from this,” Dillard mentioned.

Dillard and Duggar Dillard additionally declare their courtship and marriage had been at all times beneath regulate through Jim Bob Duggar, who allegedly Dillard mentioned made him run each and every facet of the connection through him.

On the evening prior to their 2014 marriage ceremony, the couple claimed Jim Bob Duggar stunned his 23-year-old daughter with the signature web page of a freelance that she says locked her into years of filming.

“I feel like I was tricked into it,” she mentioned.

Dillard, an legal professional, known as the contract fraud.

“We wouldn’t have agreed to [it] based on the terms that were given,” he mentioned.

The couple mentioned father Jim Bob Duggar used to be additionally manipulative after eldest son Josh Duggar, used to be known in a intercourse abuse scandal that destroyed the circle of relatives’s healthy recognition.

In 2015, Josh Duggar, the family’s eldest son, said he molested 5 women when he used to be simply 14, together with 4 of his sisters. Duggar Dillard says she informed government in regards to the abuse.

Duggar Dillard mentioned she and her sister Jessa felt like they had been compelled to give an interview to Fox News following the 2015 revelation to “save face.”

“I didn’t want to be there. Like, I was doing it out of obligation,” she mentioned.

Josh Duggar by no means confronted fees for the alleged acts, on the other hand, he used to be convicted of receiving kid pornography in 2021 and is now serving 12 and a part years in jail.

Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar informed “Nightline” in a commentary, “We love all of our children very much. As with any family, few things are more painful than conflicts or problems among those you love. We’ve aimed to deal honorably with our children, our finances, and our other endeavors. While imperfect, it is our intent and desire to live a life that honors Christ. We do not believe the best way to resolve conflicts, facilitate forgiveness and reconciliation, or to communicate through difficulties is through the media or in a public forum so we will not comment further. As the future unfolds, we will continue to love our family, pray for them, and enjoy every moment gifted to us to be parents and grandparents.”

Duggar Dillard mentioned that small acts of independence equivalent to dressed in pants or getting a nostril ring had been met with hostility through her folks.

Eventually, the couple, who’ve 3 kids, stopped filming the derivative and Duggar Dillard mentioned she has turn out to be estranged from her father.

“I think besides weddings and funerals, that was the only time that I’d seen [Jim Bob Duggar] after Freddie [the couple’s youngest son] was born, in the last five years, probably,” Dillard mentioned.

The couple mentioned they’re considering elevating their kids on their very own phrases.

“You need to give yourself grace…. but recognize what you can have, those positive and negative experiences. They can coexist. The highs do not have to be automatically erased by the lows,” Duggar Dillard mentioned.