Courtesy of Jill Duggar/Instagram, Getty Images
Jill Duggar Says Husband Derick Threatened to File a ‘Protective Order’ Against Dad Jim Bob
Jill Dillard (née Duggar) has claimed that her father, Jim Bob Duggar, threatened family members about speaking out against him after he found out she was writing her memoir, Counting the Cost, and her relationship with her dad devolved to the point where husband Derick Dillard threatened to take out a protective order against the family patriarch.
“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,” Jill, 32, told Today in a phone interview published on Monday, September 18.
The former Counting On star explained just how bad things got with her father Jim Bob, 58. “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,” she shared.
Derick, 34, added, “(Jim Bob) knew that Jill was, not in a bad way, but very emotional, very tender hearted. So, he would play to that. And I’d asked, ‘Please don’t contact her on her own, one-on-one.’ And then he had done that again. That’s when I basically said, ‘Hey, if you can’t abide by this boundary, because we’re trying to do better setting boundaries, then I’ll have to file a protective order.”
The couple attended therapy to explore how to set boundaries and Jill ultimately hopes for a reconciliation one day after taking the time to “allow things to heal correctly.”
“We do love our family ultimately, and I would love for my kids to have their grandparents involved more in their lives, but we also want to make sure that it’s a healthy relationship,” she noted. Jill and Derick share two sons, Israel David, who was born in April 2015, and Samuel Scott, who arrived in July 2017.
Three days before the September 12 release of Jill’s memoir, Jim Bob and wife Michelle, 57, released a statement to People that read, “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.”
The couple continued, “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.”
Jill has since gone on to claim her parents isolated her and her siblinngs during their childhoods, which prevented them from learning about lifestyles that were different from their own as members of the strict non-denominational Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP) church.
“If you can isolate somebody, you can control them,” Jill told Vanity Fair in an interview published on September 13. Since breaking away from the IBLP, the former reality star has gone against many church rules by wearing pants, getting her nose pierced, using birth control, sending her sons to public school and drinking alcohol. She added that she hopes “people will find courage in [her] story.”
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