People Magazine has a series of articles and interviews with Jill Dillard (nee Duggar), 29, the first of the 19 Kids and Counting daughters to get married. (Jill’s abusive brother, Josh, was the first son to marry.) Jill told People that she had to fight to get paid for her work on the spinoff reality show, Counting On, which shows the Duggar kids’ family and is surprisingly still airing. Despite the fact that Jill and her husband did seven seasons of that show there were not paid for it. Her dad, Jim-Bob, pocketed the money. I bet he’s doing that to the other kids who are still on, but they’re keeping quiet. Jill and her husband, Derick, had to use lawyers to recover some money, which Jill says ended up being around minimum wage. What’s more is that Jill is using barrier birth control, which goes against her family’s wacky belief system that women should be vessels to pump out as many babies as possible for God’s army.
“Growing up, it was ingrained in me that if you don’t have as many kids as you’re able to, that there’s something wrong with that,” Jill, 29, tells PEOPLE in this week’s issue. “But there was a shift in me where I felt like it wasn’t wrong if you decide as a couple that it’s best for you to wait.”
Jill shares sons Israel David, 5, and Samuel Scott, 3, with husband Derick Dillard, whom she wed in 2014. After giving birth to her first child via C-section in 2015, her doctor recommended she wait 18 months to get pregnant again.
“Children are a blessing, but that doesn’t mean that at all costs you should have as many kids as possible,” she says.
“I think you need to do what’s healthiest and best for your family,” says Jill, adding that she and Derick, 31, rely on “non-hormonal birth control” such as various barrier methods.
Jim Bob, 55, was reportedly the primary payee for 19 Kids and then for Counting On, which came with an estimated $25,000 to $45,000 per episode paycheck, yet Jill tells PEOPLE that she didn’t receive any compensation until she quit the show in 2017.
“That’s when we got an attorney involved and finally recovered some of the money,” she says, adding, “It was a process.” (TLC declined to comment.)
Even then, the amount was nowhere near what she feels she was due. “It probably ended up being a little more than minimum wage,” her husband Derick Dillard, 31, revealed in a video on their Dillard Family Official YouTube page. “But we were able to recover at least something.”
Jill says that in recent years, she and Derick have distanced themselves from her family, adding that it’s been “difficult.” Still, her hope is to one day reconcile with her loved ones.“I never expected this to happen or for it to get to this point,” Jill says. “But I’m realizing I can’t put a timeline on healing. I love my family and they love me. I really just have to follow God’s lead and take it one day at a time.”
When reached by PEOPLE, Jim Bob and Michelle, 54, provided the following statement: “Every family has differences of opinion and perspective at times, but families work things out. We all love Jill, Derick, and their boys very much. It is our prayer that our relationship is healed and fully restored quickly!”
It’s notable how utterly careful Jill is being. She is still very much a conservative Christian (her husband is particularly problematic), she’s just saying that it’s her decision to use barrier birth control at her doctor’s orders. She’s not even using oral birth control and she’s likely specifying the method because she knows her family considers hormonal birth control an abortifacient. (It is absolutely not.)I also think there’s so much more she’s not saying about the money issue and how hard she had to fight her family to get paid. In another article on People, Jill and Derick state that they were told they couldn’t pursue specific careers while filming the show – again which they didn’t get paid for. Jim-Bob was absolutely still trying to control his family, particularly his daughters, through that reality show, and TLC is complicit by continuing to air it. There’s probably so much more dark secrets about the Duggars, and we’ve only heard a fraction of what’s happening.
Also, Jill got a nose ring and cut her hair. That had to have chapped her parents’ asses.
It take a long time to leave a cult. I was raised jehovah witness and it took forever to truly “deprogram”. I hope she and her husband continue to grow as people.
@KYNESGROVE89 I went through the same thing. Still trying to adjust years later. I feel you! She is just doing what was drilled into her head her entire life. The fact that she is becoming her own person at all is a huge step forward.
Absolutely! I’ve been out since 2005 and I still catch myself thinking and speaking in JW terminology.
I figured at least one of those kids would break away, at least a little, despite the oppression. So many aspects of that family are abusive, so I’m glad at least one of them has put up some boundaries and is making her own decisions. Hopefully her younger sibling see that it’s possible and do the same.
I suspect neither Jill nor her husband are that great if you get them talking about the state of the world or other people’s rights, but I’m glad they’re making their own decisions and moving away from the Duggar cult.
I suspect it will be helpful when other siblings want to do the same, and it certainly ensures a healthier childhood for their two sons.
She’s a hypocrite, but I do hope for her family’s sake she manages to deprogram enough with therapy over time to start recognizing how abusive that environment is. I doubt she’ll ever be likable to me, but nobody deserves to be brainwashed like that.
I can’t believe that TLC is still working with the Duggars esp because they are now pretty vocal about their particularly hate-filled, anti-woman version of Christianity
I wonder if Jim Bob’s sons got paid. I suspect they did. Also, I hate Jill’s husband. Just despise him.
Me too, he is not an intelligent life-form and is abusive to animals.
Am not surprised to hear that JimBoob kept all the money – esp his daughters share. Now we know how Josh was funding his kinks with pron stars. To these ‘christians’ women are nothing more than slaves to be used and abused.
Jim-Bob absolutely uses financial dependence over his children to maintain control over them after they are married. What’s interesting to note is that all of this financial compensation and legal proceeding are a direct result of Sam (Jill’s youngest son) having a traumatic birth and TLC filmed it but didn’t air it, and Jill and Derrick were left with mounting hospital bills. It sounds like Jinger Nd Jeremy’s learned from Jill’s experience because they negotiated their own contract with TLC. JIm Bob was pissed about that too. I feel you look up property records for the adult children you can see where jim bob sold them their homes. He controls who they get to marry, where they get to live, and financial security.
I grew up in the Brethren church in Southern California. I discovered that it was the cult lite version of the quiverful cult.
It follows the exact same doctrine and teachings of bill gothard. I would go to the basic youth conflicts conferences from age 11-18 every year with my mom (hardcore programing) taught by bill gothard.
So imagine my surprise when I saw the dugger wife’s written set of “rules” I read through that and was wow this looks really familiar, like word for word what I was always taught familiar.
Then I found out bill gothard heads and runs the quiverful bullshit.
THEN I went down a rabbit hole of surprise and pissed off horror that I grew up in not just a super conservative fundie ultra right wing church, but a fucking cult.
It’s quiverful but dialed back so it’s more easily sold to the masses.
But I’ll tell you what, I’ve been to many churches of different denominations and they are 90-95% the same basic teachings.
I’m 51 now and I’ve been bitterly deprogramming myself for the last 15 years.
I haven’t been to actual church in almost that long.
Once I started questioning stuff I questioned everything.
I still believe in God, but… I don’t know what else I believe in anymore.
Not the fake christian religion that masks hate, that’s for sure.
I’m surrounded by a bunch of trump voting morons.
I will not be surprised when more dark revelations come out about the duggars.
Bill gothard is a fucking child molester. And I know first hand wife and child abuse is so common in that religion.
I could tell so many stories of so many people
Breaking free of fundamentalist christian cult-ure is toough, especially if you’re still exploring a role for faith in your life. Many of my friends on the same path found a home in progressive Anglican churches that were focused on social justice and community service – I don’t know what’s available where you live but it offered a space for questioning and separating some of the wheat from the chaff of their past. Wishing you peace and healing on your journey!
Thank you @ ElleV. My oldest son was christened in Anglican church, since his father is british. We needed to sit through about 6 weeks of classes and I had lots of questions that I felt were answered well. I definitely liked the more service oriented aspect and that they don’t have an issue with lgbtq people.
I do still believe in God and the spiritual world but Im kinda lost when it comes to everything else, it would be nice to be able to weed out some stuff.
They support the Pearls and their idea of blanket training which involves beating an infant with plumbing line so yes they are child abusers.
They absolutely do believe in blanket training, it’s horrifying and abuse.
Her husband sucks, but I feel bad for her. Sexually abused as a child and no one cared, didn’t make any money from having her childhood filmed, had her rightful money stolen from her by abusive parents, married off young to another fundie, brainwashed, etc…. she deserves a lot of grace, IMO. Proud of her for speaking out. I hope it helps the others.
TLC is notorious about how they set up their shows and exploit people. Anyone watching that channel needs to do a deep dive into their background about their exploitation of the Gosselins.
And 90 Day Fiancé. Only the American gets paid, and the usually terrible American person in the couple dangles that money over the foreign fiance’s head.
That;s due to visa issues not the network being shady. The foreigner doesn’t have the permit to work when they arrive. It comes a couple of months after they adjust their status.
@fluffy_bunny, then it’s on the network for having a show that requires that set-up.
TLC is disgusting. And these reality shows are disgusting.
Exploited the Gosselin children, yes. The parents though were 100% complicit in that exploitation though. In no way should either of those a**holes be considered victims in any way. Those poor kids never stood a chance
Jill has also enrolled their older son in public school, which is also a no-no in their cult. Her husband is just about done law school and they are the only self-sustaining Duggar spawn. All the others rely on Jim Bob in some fashion for their livelihoods. Josh and Anna and Jessa and Ben both live in homes controlled by JB. I think the only other non Jim Bob controlled homeowners are Joy and Austin and John David and Abbie. Austin is a contractor and John David has his own business and Abbie is/was a nurse. Jeremy and Jinger live rent free in a church house in LA and are desperately trying to become influencers while he becomes a pastor.
If I’m not mistaken I believe josh (the molester) and his wife actually live in a converted warehouse on the Duggar compound.
” Jill got a nose ring and cut her hair. That had to have chapped her parents’ asses.”
And she wears pants (yup, those people are still opposed to women wearing pants!), and SHORTS, and shows her shoulders in tank tops! Also, she talks about her sex life on Instagram, is in therapy where she is clearly learning a lot (posting about setting healthy boundaries, etc.), has Black and Muslim friends (has friends who aren’t her siblings, period), has started posting some woke-adjacent stuff, and the biggest thing of them all: her oldest has started school this Fall. Public school!!! And all these changes only started happening in the last two years. So right now, Jilly’s probably still a conservative, sure… but hopefully, this is only the start of her journey. I’m really rooting for her.
Any chance you’re on Reddit DuggarSnark? That’s where I get my Duggar details.
Lmao I’m on Duggar snark too. The “Jilly” thing is a dead giveaway. I’m sitting here waiting for people to start complaining about Dwreck and Sex Pest and Boob and Meech!
Lol, you guys. And here I thought I had shown restraint by not calling her Jillymuffin xD
And Blessa and Bin! Hello my fellow snarkers. I also love FundieSnark too.
I lurk over there too. Very proud of her for going to therapy too. It will take her years to de-program from growing up in a cult.
That’s really encouraging, thank you for posting. I’ll always give credit to people who try to be better. She has a lifetime of brainwashing to overcome, and there are no short-term solutions.
AND she drinks alcohol, too! Who knows what Jim Bob and Michelle are telling the other siblings about her and Cousin Amy (her husband owns a whiskey bar.) I wish her well and pray for her continued healing and growth.
Probably that they’re cavorting with the devil.
I know we aren’t huge fans of the Duggars around these parts and Jill’s husband is problematic. But Jill grew up brainwashed in a fundie Christian cult where she was taught women are subservient to husbands and their job is to obey their husbands and pop out babies. On top of that, she was molested by her older brother and her parents did everything to cover for Josh. She had two traumatic births (I think she bled a lot for each of them) and it took a medical doctor telling her she should probably space out having kids to realize that the life she had been told to live all her life was probably not the best choice for her family. I actually think the doctor told her under no circumstances should she have anymore kids actually, but she hasn’t revealed that because 1) that’s super private 2) she doesn’t need her family hassling her for not having more kids and making her feel less than.
Out of all the Duggar kids breaking free, I actually never thought it would be her! But I’m really proud of how far she’s come. She’s wearing pants, drinking alcohol, cut her hair, got a nose ring, and sending her kids to public school. She’s also in therapy and practicing birth control for her own health and safety. Not to mention she and Derick are looking out for themselves and while they may not have gotten a lot of money, they stood up for themselves.
I think Jinger and Jeremy are also doing similar things to Jill and Derrick but are just more low-key about it. They moved away from the family and it’s pretty clear Jeremy does not tolerate Jim Bob’s patriarchal BS. It’s kind of sad that it took less conservative husbands for certain daughters to break away and I sort of hope that the younger Duggar daughters aren’t subjected to this BS. Sometimes I wonder if that’s why Jana has been hanging around her family for so long and hasn’t gotten married, to look out for her younger sisters.
I actually worry more about the younger Duggar girls. I think this will just make Jim Bob double down on finding ultra-fundy husbands for them, to avoid “rebellions” like this happening again. He’s all about maintaining control no matter what. I’m sure he’ll marry them off as soon as they turn 18. Joy was 19 when she got married, and now Justin is courting/engaged and he isn’t even 18 yet. Jim Bob and Josh need to go to a deserted island and live alone for the rest of their lives.
I’ve followed this family for years because I was raised not fundie but fundie adjacent. A lot of their control techniques were things I’ve seen with friends and loved ones. Jill and Derick are still problematic for sure but it takes a lifetime to deprogram oneself. The fact that they’re taking these steps means there’s hope, if not for them then for their boys.
If anyone is curious to learn more about the cult she was raised in, research IBLP, ATI, Quiverfull, and Bill Gothard. Sibling sexual abuse is so common in these groups that they have worksheets ready to go to teach the young victims that it was probably their fault and they need to just forgive and move on.
Getting a professional trim or haircut makes ALL the difference sometimes.
I still think about when Michelle got her hair makeover and looked pretty good with it. She was getting complemented and encouraged to keep it and then there was that one person who did not like it and she went back to whatever the hell that style was.
You mean Jim Bob didn’t like it. His opinion is the only one that matters to her. Even if she liked it she wouldn’t have been allowed to keep it up,
Yes, it was Jim Bob.
Dang, good for her! That haircut had to have been huge for her but I’m so glad she’s taking control of her body and using birth control. They made nothing in 7 years? Is that even legal?
I doubt that her siblings know that she finally got paid some of what she was owed because I don’t think she’s allowed to visit the main house unless Jim Bob is there. Don’t want her spilling the beans and persuading her siblings to question things!
Do they not have cell phones? Can she not independently contact her siblings?
Jim Bob has full control over communication for at least the younger kids still at home. For the adults who have married and moved out it’s a little less clear cut.
@ margedebarge – I’d bet they’re all still on his cell phone plan, though. He’d just need to threaten to cut them off if they contact her without permission.
I am honestly amazed that of all the children, Jill is the one to break free. She seemed Jim Bob’s favorite and best little minion. I really can’t believe that TLC would essentially employ adults and not have a compensation deal with them but only pay their FATHER. And that the FATHER would think it’s permissible to deprive his children of compensation for sharing their lives. For God’s sake, she had to endure being identified internationally for her brother molesting her and put on a showpony act to please her parents. But she earned zero??
I’m so confused as to how it is legal to employ adults, but not pay them directly or have any kind of contract that addresses their employment. How do payroll taxes get taken out? Do they get residuals? I am guessing the shows are non-union, but even then this seems really bizarre to me.
Don’t know if anyone on here is into Reddit, but the r/DuggarSnark subreddit is a really good place for discussion. Everyone had been speculating this about Jill for a few months now, if not longer, and so it’s interesting to see her come out with this publicly.
And yes, Jim Bob absolutely controls his family with money. He does this thing where, after one of them gets married, he gifts the married couple with a house/property of their own. He has all of these people dependent on him for housing and cash. There’s a lot of talk right now about Anna and Josh Duggar especially, because it seems like Jim Bob made them vacate one of the properties they were living on and move into another one (which doesn’t have windows or a finished bathroom apparently????), for reasons no one can quite figure out. Again, some people on the subreddit think it’s because Jim Bob wants to keep a closer eye on Josh, but the choice of housing is still really really strange, and it makes some others on the subreddit think that he’s maybe punishing them for stepping out of line somehow.
Anyway, all of this is particularly interesting given the whole Fundie shit that’s going down with the IBPL and the Bill Gothard stuff. I know what too much about all of this than I really should, given that I am not even Christian.
If Anna left Josh and announced that she was done with the Duggars forever, she’d probably do pretty well with a GoFundMe to aid her escape.
Why wasn’t TLC paying the adults directly? I guess it’s not unheard of for business managers to handle finances but I still think the show should have paid the girls directly.