Why Jill Duggar Will Reveal Family Secrets in Her Book ‘Counting the Cost’: ‘She Wants the Truth Out’

Jill Dillard (née Duggar) isn’t finished airing her family’s dirty laundry. In June, the 19 Kids and Counting alum was sharply critical of her ultra-conservative parents, Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar, in the Prime Video docuseries Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets. Among her allegations: that she was forced to defend older brother Josh on TV after news broke he had sexually abused his sisters (he’s now in prison for possessing child porn) and that her father tricked her into signing a contract and allegedly cheated her out of money from the mega family’s reality show.

Now, in her new book, Counting the Cost (out September 12), the 32-year-old is promising to reveal the “secrets, manipulation and intimidation” behind the TLC show that fans never saw.  “Jill continues to criticize her parents all the time both publicly and privately,” an insider tells In Touch. (Jim Bob and Michelle brought their kids up with such beliefs that the man is the only head of the household and that women are responsible for causing male lust.) 

“Jill feels like she needs to do this for her own healing,” says the insider. “She wants the truth out.” 

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Jill and her husband, Derick Dillard, announced the book on May 31 via Instagram. 

“The challenges we have faced, including lack of respect for boundaries, greed, manipulation, and betrayal, are not that much different than what many people in our audience have faced,” Jill wrote in the caption. “However, 15+ years of reality television, undergirded by secrecy and lies, is tantamount to pouring gasoline on the fire of our struggle.”

She concluded, “Thanks to time, tears, truth, and therapy, God has begun to heal our wounds into scars. Though we would have never chosen this path, and it has cost us dearly, we want to use our voice to show others that there is hope beyond the pain.”