Derick Dillard Slams ‘Counting On’ as Fake, Claims Jim Bob ‘Humiliated and Threatened’ Him and Jill
In the wake of the season 11 premiere of Counting On, Derick Dillard is once again lashing out at father-in-law Jim Bob Duggar and the Duggar family’s TV show. In a series of Instagram comments written in response to fans on one of TLC’s posts promoting the series, he called out wife Jill Dillard’s dad for “attacking” them over their choice to leave the show. He also slammed the reality show for not representing “anything close to reality.”
“From what we’ve seen, [Counting On is] not accurate at all,” Derick, 31, wrote on Wednesday, July 8. “Maybe I’ll start a livestream during episodes, critiquing what is really going on in real-time.” In other comments, he alleged, “[The show is] still under [Jim Bob’s] control, and he will attack the victims if they threaten his show. We were humiliated and threatened when we first tried to not film.”
The law school student claimed he and Jill, 29, were eventually able to leave the show once more of the adult children started filming. “Now, it’s not dependent on us anymore to keep the show going because more kids got married, so [it was] more OK if we quit,” he said. However, he’s hoping more of his brothers and sisters-in-law will follow in the Dillards’ footsteps. The father of two insisted his issues were only with the “boss” of the family and he “sure hopes” other siblings also break free of Jim Bob’s influence.
Derick has spoken out in the past about his and wife Jill’s reasons for leaving the show. In December 2019 and January 2020, he hosted his own impromptu Q&A in the comments of his Instagram photos in which he claimed the kids were filmed without compensation. He also said Jill and her family aren’t allowed at her parents’ house without permission and they feared a lawsuit from her family if they tried to leave the show.
He stated he’s speaking up again in July because everything that went down with filming has “messed up his family.” He didn’t want to sweep their issues under the rug, but instead address them publicly. “[TLC] canceled [19 Kids and Counting] to be politically correct, but then brought it back ‘cause the money was too good,” he claimed. “We have to break this culture that cares more about money and ratings than protecting the most vulnerable. [Jeffrey] Epstein already showed us that, if you have enough money, power and influence, you can get away with anything. Sadly, it doesn’t stop with him.”
The former reality star even changed his Instagram bio to describe himself as a “reformed Counting On cast member” who is “enlightened.” He also summed up his thoughts in one simple tweet. “I learned an interesting principle years ago in an internal auditing class,” he wrote. “Everybody has a price.”
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