Jill Duggar Dillard starred alongside her mega-famous religious family on TLC's 19 Kids & Counting from 2008 to 2014, and again on the family's spin-off, Counting On, from 2015 to 2017. Until recently, Jill never revealed exactly why she left the show. But she just gave an interview where she tells all: it turns out that Jill wasn't paid for her appearances on the show … for years.
While her father, Jim Bob Duggar, was reportedly paid $25,000 to $45,000 per episode, he apparently didn't give any of that money to his children. Jill says that she finally got a lawyer involved in 2017.
"That's when we got an attorney involved and finally recovered some of the money. It was a process."
Unfortunately, even the amount that she was able to recover isn't close to what Jill feels she's actually owed. Her husband Derick Dillard explains, "It probably ended up being a little more than minimum wage. But we were able to recover at least something."
Jill's family has definitely acted questionably toward her in the last few years. In 2015, it was revealed that Jill's brother, Josh, allegedly molested her, three of the other sisters, and a babysitter. Despite that, many members of the family still defended Josh in public interviews, including Jessa, whom he also reportedly molested.
When Jill's parents, Jim Bob and Michelle, spoke to Fox News about Josh, they seemed to praise their son for coming clean. Jim Bob said that Josh told his parents he "improperly touched some of our daughters" and Michelle praised Josh for being "the one that came and shared on his own."
Jim Bob says that Josh explained, "He was just curious about girls and he had gone in and touched them over their clothes while they were sleeping." The parents also said that they made protecting their daughters their first priority, but unfortunately, it wasn't enough. Josh went on to also confess that he had touched two of their daughters "under their clothes."
Jim Bob and Michelle also told Fox News they were ashamed of what their son did.
"Of course this is public shame that our son did this. We thought at first that Josh was on the road to manhood at first. But he was just a kid. He was still juvenile. But there was a couple more times he came and told us what he had done, and we were devastated."
At least one of the victims was described as being "single-digit" age.
Derick and Jill have become more vocal about their feelings about the show and Jill's family in recent years. In 2017, Derick said, "This show is not anything close to reality. From what we've seen, not accurate at all. Maybe I'll start a livestream during episodes, critiquing what is really going on in real time."
Derick has also previously said that he and Jill were mistreated by the family when they decided to stop filming.
"We were humiliated and threatened when we first tried to not film. Now it's not dependent on us anymore to keep the show going because more kids got married, so it's more OK if we quit."
Derick has even gone so far as to refer to Jill as an "abuse victim."
On July 8, he wrote, "We have to break this culture that cares more about ratings than protecting the most vulnerable. [Jeffrey] Epstein already showed up that if you have enough money, power, and influence you can get away with anything … there are many more stories in this world that are not too different."
Jill also recently opened up about how deeply fractured her family is right now. While she says that she is slowly working toward repairing the relationships she's had with various family members, it will take time.
"I never expected this to happen or for it to get to this point. 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."
People reached out to Jill's parents to see if they had anything to say about Jill's payment accusations.
They simply said, "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!"
If there's one thing that's been clear since Jill and Derick left the show, it's that the pair seem quite happy living by their own rules. If anything, it has to be nice that they no longer have to deal with what Derick once described as the "extreme emotional pressure from within and without [the] family" to continue filming the show.
