Courtesy of Jill Duggar/Instagram (1); Getty Images (2)
Jill Duggar Claims Jim Bob Tried to Send Husband Derick to Rehab for ‘Clearly Raging Alcoholism’
Jill Duggar claimed that her father, Jim Bob Duggar, tried to send her husband, Derick Dillard, to rehab after he started drinking alcohol.
In her memoir, Counting the Cost, Jill, 32, shared that Jim Bob, 58, learned that Derick, 34, had been spotted drinking a beer. The Duggar patriarch then offered to send Derick to rehab to cure his “clearly raging alcoholism.”
However, Derick declined a stay in rehab and insisted he didn’t have a drinking problem. The father of three added that he had “never been drunk or ever had more than two beers in any one sitting.”
After Jill and Derick left Counting On in 2017 and began to distance themselves from her family, the couple started to rebel against the way Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar raised their kids to follow the Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP) teachings. In addition to drinking alcohol, the couple chose to send their sons to public school. Meanwhile, Jill started wearing pants and even got her nose pierced.
Jim Bob’s offer to send Derick to rehab isn’t the only bombshell Jill shared in the book, which came out on September 12.
Jill also opened up about her decision to go on birth control, which is looked down on in the IBLP community. After she welcomed baby No. 2, son Samuel, via emergency C-section in 2017, Jill said she started taking birth control because doctors recommend that women don’t become pregnant for at least 18 months after the surgery. After noting that Derick agreed it was the right decision, Jill admitted she felt guilty about it and “kept it a secret from nearly everyone.”
“I was devastated at the thought of not being able to have more kids, and I felt like my fertility had been robbed from me,” she wrote in the book. “But also, dare I say it, I was somewhat relieved. The devastation far outweighed the relief, but there was a small part of me that appreciated the excuse not to have to go through a zillion pregnancies and deliveries.”
Not only did Jill spill several secrets in the book, but she has continued to share information about her complex family dynamic while promoting the memoir.
While speaking to Today on Monday, September 18, Jill claimed that Jim Bob threatened their family members about speaking out against him after he learned she was writing the memoir.
“My dad texted the entire family group text (since we’re still in the group thread) and he was just saying, ‘This is so sad’ and basically threatening that if anybody speaks out against him or my mom that they would be cut out of the inheritance,” she said.
The TLC alum then explained that things became tense between her and Jim Bob. “My relationship with my dad got pretty toxic to the point where we had to cut off individual contact with him … It got to the point where Derick was there to step in and kind of say, ‘Hey, don’t reach out to my wife individually or else I’ll have to file a protective order,’ just because it was so hard for me to handle,” Jill shared.
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