Jill Duggar Shares Surprising Update on Her Relationship With Her Parents

Jill Duggar Dillard shared a positive update on her relationship with her parents, Jim Bob and Michelle. The fourth Duggar child has been estranged from her parents for years, which she attributed to greed, deceit, and her strict upbringing. In a recent Q&A that she participated in, she was asked about the current state of her relationship with her parents. 

Using the Q&A function on Instagram, she said the relationship is “Complicated.” Despite such, she says they are moving forward in a positive direction. “I feel like we are in a rebuilding phase now, with healthy boundaries still in place,” she wrote. They are speaking on a more frequent basis, but she says within her healthy boundaries she’s set. “We try to hang out whenever it works well, and we have the [mental] bandwidth to navigate things,” she wrote.

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Jill and her husband spoke with Nightline following the release of her tell-all memoir Counting the Cost, revealing she felt pressure to maintain a certain image on their TLC reality show 19 Kids and Counting. “Anyone who is making decisions for themselves that the parents don’t give their blessing, that’s seen as rebellious. So even if you’re an adult, even if you’ve been an adult for a long time, you’re married with kids, if your parents don’t give their blessing, then you’re not honoring them,” she said, per ABC News.

Jill began starring on the show when she was a teenager. She also starred in the spinoff, Jill and Jessa: Counting On alongside her sister Jessa. They filmed over 200 episodes and over a dozen specials with her family, but she says little money was received. 

After fighting her father over television royalties, she says she received a $175,000 check. From there, she stopped speaking to her father. “People would say…, I’m so glad the girls are getting something, …and people didn’t know that [the show] was called ‘Jill and Jessa Counting On,’ but Jill and Jessa, and their families aren’t getting any kind of financial benefit from this,” she said. She says her and her sisters’ marriages were also controlled by her father, who she claims her mother had to approve of.

Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar told Nightline in a statement about their daughter’s interview, “We love all of our children very much. As with any family, few things are more painful than conflicts or problems among those you love. We’ve aimed to deal honorably with our children, our finances, and our other endeavors. While imperfect, it is our intent and desire to live a life that honors Christ. We do not believe the best way to resolve conflicts, facilitate forgiveness and reconciliation, or to communicate through difficulties is through the media or in a public forum so we will not comment further. As the future unfolds, we will continue to love our family, pray for them, and enjoy every moment gifted to us to be parents and grandparents.”