Duggar Family Secrets: Jill Duggar Loses Trust in Jim Bob – Shocking Details Behind This Surprising Decision!

Duggar Family Secrets: Jill Duggar Loses Trust in Jim Bob – Shocking Details Behind This Surprising Decision!

Jill Duggar Dillard has come a long way since 19 Kids and Counting and the subsequent series Counting On were canceled by TLC. Jill has recently been stepping out in ways that show she is now an authority in her own life. The conservative upbringing she had under The Institute of Basic Life Principles taught her that using her voice to say “no” was unacceptable as a child, or as a woman under her parents or husband’s authority. The promotion of her new memoir and the interviews she has been giving on podcasts and other media demonstrate that finding her voice to tell her own story has not been easy. But she has finally found she can stand up to those who, in the past, she was convinced had authority over her.

Jill has had a hand in raising children since she was a child herself. In her large family of nineteen children, the older ones help to raise the younger. She now has her hands full with her own children, three young boys of her own to raise. Her husband, Derick Dillard, is an attorney, and from all accounts, appears to have been a support system that allowed his wife to see her fraught situation with her famous family more clearly. Growing up on television in a conservative religious family had the effect of reinforcing the lesson that, through obedience and an ever-present smile, she could be a shiny example to others. Her father, Jim Bob Duggar, claimed that, while their religion taught them to avoid watching television themselves, their series could be thought of as a “ministry,” an outreach to the world to show how happy and fruitful their family was.

Jill’s recent memoir Counting The Cost allowed the ex-reality star to reclaim the narrative of her tribulations with her family. The carefully curated image of the family came at a deep cost for the children, especially the young girls, who were the main draw in audience interest for the TLC series she had been part of since childhood. As Jill matured and began to view the world as a wife and mother, certain lessons from her youth became untenable. She began to question many things she had been raised to think of as true. Jill found her voice and began speaking her mind, with encouragement from her husband and rancor from her controlling father.

Jill Starts to Question Her Role in ‘Counting On’

Jill’s participation in filming with her family was never a question of consent. Her parents signed on to the TLC series 19 Kids and Counting, as a continuation of the documentaries the network had already produced featuring the family. All the children were expected to film, as Jim Bob and his wife Michelle Duggar had signed contracts on their behalf. And there was no questioning the authority of a parent in the Duggar clan. Everything in Jill’s life was documented as she scrupulously followed her parents’ guidance.

Shortly after her marriage to Derick, Jill settled into her new role as wife and expecting mother. Now an adult who had some autonomy outside the “umbrella” of her father’s authority, Jill had the space to finally assess her role in the family and on the reality series she had been contractually obligated to participate in. When she and her husband were doing missionary work in El Salvadore in 2016, the network and her father pressured her to return to film the new spin-off series Counting On. This pressure to perform was a direct result of her brother Josh Duggar being embroiled in a legal scandal regarding his history of abusing young girls in his youth, including Jill and her sister Jinger Duggar. In the Amazon documentary, Shiny, Happy, People, Jill remarks that TLCproducers wanted to distance themselves from that story. They, and her father, wanted Jill back in the States to film the new spin-off centered around the elder Duggar daughters.

Then, in 2023, Amazon produced their four-part documentary series about the Duggars and their history with the Institute of Basic Living, Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets. Talking to the interviewer, Jill admits that she would rather not have to relive the dark times in her family history, but knowing that her story is already “out there” she says, “I’d rather have a say in what that looks like.” Throughout her childhood on television she had very little say in what her life “story” looked like, guided as she was by her parents’ beliefs.

When the allegations against her brother Josh first came out in the media, Jill once again had little say in how the narrative was framed. In the wake of the 2015 revelations about her brother, an interview with Megyn Kelly was set up. Jill and her sister Jinger were then put in the horrible position of defending their abuser. In Shiny, Happy, People, Jill mentions that the producers of 19 Kids and Counting and her father would have conversations about how the show would be “handled” in the wake of the allegations against Josh. The Megan Kelly interview was meant to downplay what had transpired when her brother had abused her: “As far as recovery and damage control, you just feel like the burden and the weight falls on you to help, because you’re the only one who can.” Jill has said that she now regrets participating in the interview, and she would not have done so if not for the sake of her parents.

In her years since leaving Counting On, Jill has been working on finding her voice and setting boundaries with her family. Her participation in the Amazon documentary was against her father’s wishes. In a joint statement released after the documentary was announced, Jim Bob and Michelle referred to the documentary as “sad” and “sensationalized.” They also commented: “We have always believed that the best chance to repair damaged relationships, or to reconcile differences, is through love in a private setting.” An ironic stance, considering how public they made their children’s lives over the years. Jill knew that her story would be discussed in the documentary, regardless if she participated or not, and so it was important to her to have a say in how her narrative was shaped. She has also reclaimed her own narrative by releasing her memoir. Since finding her voice, Jill has stood firm in her commitment to setting boundaries with her family.

Jill’s Recent Interviews Reveal Distance From Family

Jill has been promoting Counting the Cost, which was released in September 2023. Her appearance on the Unplanned podcast in January 2024 provided an update on her relationship with her family now that she is speaking out against her upbringing. On the podcast, she mentions that it has been more than a year since she has spoken with her father. Jill discusses the rupture in her family, saying once she started to have a difference of opinion from her father, things got “a little rocky.” In Shiny, Happy, People she even went so far as to call The Institute of Basic Life Principles “cult-like,” saying that the belief system draws in people like her father, who want to have “control.”