Today’s the day that Jill Duggar’s long-awaited memoir finally hits stores.
And as expected, the response from Jill’s family has been less than ecstatic.
In excerpts published earlier this week, Jill complained of the poor treatment that she received from her parents during her upbringing.
She alleged that Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar showed an obvious preference for the eldest son, Josh Duggar — a preference that’s continued despite his numerous sex scandals and subsequent imprisonment.
Now, Jim Bob and Michelle are vehemently denying the accusation that they bestow preferential treatment on any of their kids.
“We love all of our children very much,” Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar said in a statement issued on Monday.
“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.”
It’s the sort of boilerplate response that fans anticipated.
And this might be just the beginning of the war or words between Jill and her parents.
In the book, Jill accuses her domineering father of “verbally abusing” her on numerous occasions.
Jill recalls one confrontation in which Jim Bob stomped across the room in her direction, “towering over” her in intimidating fashion.
“It wasn’t a gesture of reconciliation,” she writes. “It was an act of aggression.”
“You want to know why I’m crying?” she recalls telling her father.
“It’s that you think I’m some kind of horrible person just because I wear pants and have a nose ring,” she continued.
“You treat me like I’m a prodigal who’s turned her back on you. You treat me worse than you treat my pedophile brother.”
Along with three of her sisters, Jill was molested by Josh when she was very young.
Rather than taking action to ensure that such abuse would never again take place under their roof, Jim Bob and Michelle did their best to sweep their son’s crimes under the carpet and protect Josh from suffering any legal consequences.
Obviously, Jill was deeply wounded by that course of action.
Jill cut ties with her parents back in 2019 amid allegations that Jim Bob never paid her for her work on the family reality shows.
In the years that followed, Jill, her husband Derick Dillard, and their three children have enjoyed a quiet life far removed from the scandals that have rocked her family.
But with the publication of her new book, Jill has once more entered the fray.
And we’re sure her parents are planning to make her regret it.
