Courtesy of Jill Duggar/Instagram
Jill Duggar Reveals Where She Stands With Her Siblings Amid Estrangement: Not ‘Like it Used to Be’
Jill Duggar revealed where she stands with her siblings amid her estrangement from her family.
After admitting that her relationship with parents Jim Bob Duggar and Michelle Duggar isn’t what it used to be, Jill, 32, said that she’s still in touch with “several” of her siblings during the Wednesday, January 10, episode of “The Unplanned Podcast.”
“It’s still one of those situations where you kind of have to, like, know like, ‘What am I up for emotionally?’” she continued. “Cause a lot of times Derick [Dillard] and I will debrief afterwards. Like, ‘OK, like how did this go?’ And I would be lying if I would say it’s completely like it used to be or there aren’t any triggers or it doesn’t bring up any trauma at all. Like, there are those moments.”
While there’s some tension in her relationships with her siblings, Jill said that she can still have “a great time” with her family members when they’re together. However, she said it’s “still hard.”
“If I’m getting together with one of my siblings and things aren’t like they used to be, there’s a part of me that’s like sad about that,” she continued. “I wish things could be like they were before. But at the time, kind of like I talk about in the book, it’s like, ‘Would I trade just ignorance is bliss and this pseudo bliss for where we’re at? No.”
Jill added, “I don’t want to just go back to living in this crazy controlling environment even though it’s hard.”
The Counting On alum has been outspoken about her strained relationship with her family, and she candidly spoke about their dynamic in her 2023 memoir, Counting the Cost.
She has said that she would like to work through her issues with Jim Bob, 58, and Michelle, 57, while Jill and husband Derick, 34, seemingly put effort into mending their relationships when they celebrated Christmas with her family in December 2023.
James Duggar confirmed the couple attended the celebration by sharing a photo of Jill and Derick hanging out in the kitchen on Christmas Day. “Merry Christmas! It was great to see you bro,” the mother of three wrote in the comments section of the post.
In addition to Jill and Derick, James, 22, also shared photos that featured Jeremiah Duggar, Joy-Anna Forsyth (née Duggar), John-David Duggar, Jana Duggar and Jason Duggar at the gathering.
Jill dropped several more bombshells during the podcast appearance, including that Jim Bob and Michelle raised their kids to act as “persistent teenagers.”
“You mature quickly, but then you kind of like stay in this … in this idea of, yeah, just perpetually under your parents authority and all that,” the TLC alum explained. “There’s not really this point where you break away.”
She went on to point out that her parents created a dynamic that worked like a “family business,” so their children ultimately felt like they didn’t have “control” over their decisions.
Jill and Derick appeared on the podcast after she recalled how her estrangement from her parents began during an interview with “Ask Dr. Julie Hanks” in November 2023.
“As we paved our own path, it became very difficult for me because I realized I could not please my parents and do what I feel like we’re being called to do,” she said. “I think whenever it got really toxic is whenever I was almost forced to choose and I wouldn’t have chosen that. I wanted to please everyone.”
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