Jill Duggar has come out swinging against her parents.
As you've very likely read by now, the former reality star decided to go public a few weeks ago with her estragement from various members of her famous family.
In a YouTube video recorded alongside husband Derick Dillard, for example, Duggar admitted she isn't close to her mother and father any longer.
“There’s been some distancing there,” Jill confessed in this footage, adding of Jim Bob, Michelle and her brothers and sisters:
“We’re not on the best terms with some of my family.
"We’ve had some disagreements, but we’re working towards healing definitely and restoration, but we’re having to kind of just take some time and heal."
Then, speaking to People Magazine this wek in the kind of national interview that no Duggar ever really gives, Jill delved more into the basis behind this split.
"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 mother of two explained.
She went on to say that Jim Bob and Michelle essentially made it impossible for Jill and her immediate family to set goals for themselves -- both personally and professionally -- because they kept interfering.
"The first few years of our marriage, we spent time and money working towards opportunities only to hit a dead end when we'd be told, 'Well, you're not allowed to do that,'" Dillard said.
Now, in a new excerpt from this same People feature, Jill touched on her time as a 19 Kids and Counting cast member, along with her stint on the spinoff, Counting On.
She echoed what Dillard said many months ago, emphasizing something her husband has been alleging for nearly a year now:
That Jim Bob stole millions from his own kids.
"We got an attorney involved and finally recovered some of the money," Jill said to this publication, adding: "It was a process."
Jill, for the record, was a fixture on 19 Kids and Counting... right up until it was canceled by TLC due to the Josh Duggar molestation scandal.
She then co-starred on Counting On... right until Dillard was fired by producers for his numerous anti-transgender remarks and Jill left thhe program as well in 2017.
Jim Bob was reportedly the primary payee for these shows, meaning he pocketed about $25,000 to $45,000 per episode paycheck. Per cast member.
We don't know the details of the TLC contract Jill signed, or just how much of her salary she was able to recover through the use of a lawyer.
But "it probably ended up being a little more than minimum wage," Dillard revealed in a video on their Dillard Family Official YouTube page.
"But we were able to recover at least something."
Back in early October, Jill also confessed that she had to sue to get these funds.
"Up until the time we left the show we hadn't been paid for anything," she said during YouTube Q&A session a few weeks ago.
"There were perks - if you were traveling they may cover the expenses - and we were grateful, but we weren't paid until we were pressing and we got an attorney involved."
Added Derick in this same video:
“We were strongly discouraged from talking to other family members about payment or lack thereof."
Overall, Jilll fiinally voiced her very clear rivalry with her parents in this new sit-down.
Over this summer and fall, she has admitted to drinking alcohol and even to using birth control, two giant no-no's in the Duggar household.
In recent years, the star says here, she and Derick have distanced themselves from her family, adding that it's been "difficult." Yet... she maintains hope.
"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."
TLC refrained from commenting on Jill's allegations over her income and over how much Jim Bob made off their programs.
But Jim Bob and Michelle did provide this magazine with a statement that reads as follows:
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!
