Things between Jill Duggar's parents, 19 Kids and Counting and Counting On stars Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, and her husband, Derick Dillard, have been rumored to be a little strained since 2017, when Derick was fired from the reality series because of homophobic and transphobic tweets he posted. Now, he is speaking a bit about his relationship with his in-laws.
It all started after Derick shared pictures from his Christmas celebrations with Jill. Jim Bob and Michelle were absent, sparking one fan to ask in the comments, "Does Jill and Derrick go to her parents house. I see so many pics of Duggar family but they aren’t never in the pics." Derick responded, "We're not on 19 Kids and Counting anymore." This had many of his followers pointing out that that's not the question that was asked, and others noting that 19 Kids and Counting was canceled in 2015 after it was revealed Josh Duggar molested his sisters and the family covered it up. Derick stated that it wasn't cancelled rather it was "just renamed."
Jumping off that, another fan wrote, "JB and Michelle have worked their way back on, so Jill and fam should be able to also." Derick replied, "Yes, [JB and Michelle did] because it’s their show. We’ve only made guest appearances over the years for [a] wedding, birth, etc. We've never had any contact with TLC, hence not knowing there was a contract. Nobody from TLC has even mentioned to us what they would prefer that we say or not say."
Then came something strange - someone asked Derick if there are hard feelings between him and the Duggars. He said, "No hard feelings. There are just more things we are aware of now. The truth will always set you free."
Derick made sure to also state, "I haven't trash talked, just answered questions that others should know about us so they're no longer deceived like we were." That's a reference to money from the show. He said, "For a long time, Jill and I were under the impression that the family didn’t make any money from the show, but, rather, it was presented to us kids as something that was done as a ministry that TLC periodically subsidized in the form [of] reimbursements for things like gas, restaurants, travel, etc.… But not any actual pay on top of that."
As for his current relationship with his in-laws, he actually needs permission to go to their house, explaining, "It’s harder now because we're not allowed at the house when JB isn’t there. Jill even had to ask JB permission to go over to the house to help her sister when she was in labor because her sister wanted her help, but Jill couldn’t provide the assistance until we got it cleared with JB."
Don't expect to see him on the series again though, TLC previously released a statement that read, "We want to let our viewers know that Derick Dillard has not participated inCounting On for months and the network has no plans to feature him in the future. We want to reiterate that Derick's personal statements do not reflect the views of the network."
You can follow Derick here.
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