Jill Duggar Opens Up About Family’s Reaction to Her Decision to Quit ‘Counting On’: ‘It Didn’t Go Over Well’
Jill Duggar is continuing to speak out about her rift with her family and decision to leave Counting On. In a new interview, the mom of two revealed what finally pushed her to leave reality TV behind. She also spoke about how her relatives reacted when she told them the news.
Jill Duggar says she had little control over her life when she was on ‘Counting On’
Jill told People that when she and Derick were on Counting On, they had little control over many aspects of their life.
“Our control to choose what jobs we were allowed to accept and even where we were allowed to live was taken away from us,” the 29-year-old said.
That echoes what Jill said in a recent Q&A video she and Derick posted to YouTube.
“We left the show three years ago now because, basically, our family goals that we had for ourselves didn’t align with what we found out … we ended up finding out that we didn’t have as much control over our lives as it related to the show,” she said.
Derick added that he and Jill “learned some information” which forced them to make a decision about whether to continue with the show, a spinoff of her family’s earlier series, 19 Kids and Counting.
“We had to quit filming because we were kind of put between a rock and a hard place where we had to choose between our family goals or filming,” the 31-year-old law student said.
The Duggar family didn’t have a great reaction when Jill and Derick decided to quit ‘Counting On’
After Jill and Derick decided to quit Counting On, they had to break the news to her family. She admits that they weren’t thrilled with the decision.
“It didn’t go over very well with anyone,” Jill told People. “By that point we’d had enough. We knew we had to pull out completely to reevaluate and get our bearings.”
In recent months, Jill has spoken about her complicated relationship with her parents and 18 siblings. Recently, she confessed in the Q&A video that she and her husband are “not on the best terms with some of my family.”
“I never expected this to happen or for it to get to this point,” she explained to People. “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.”
Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar address their relationship with Jill and Derick
Jill has declined to share specific details about the rift with her family. In addition to conflicts over quitting the TLC series, some Duggar family followers think the dispute might have to do with money. Others suspect it is related to Josh Duggar, who molested several of his younger sisters, including Jill, when they were children.
In a statement to the magazine, Jill’s parents Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar said that “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,” they added. “It is our prayer that our relationship is healed and fully restored quickly!”
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