After months of anticipation, Jill Duggar’s debut memoir finally hit stores this week.
As expected, the book contains several startling revelations about Jill’s tumultuous upbringing and the bizarre system of rules forced upon her by her father, Jim Bob Duggar.
Jill cut off contact with her parents back in 2019, a decision that was motivated as much by their behavior toward her in her adult years as it was by the abuse she endured as a child.
Specifically, Jim Bob and Michelle turned on Jill after she revealed that she received very little money for her work on her family’s TLC reality shows.
When Jill’s husband, Derick Dillard, publicly complained about the lack of remuneration, Jim Bob allegedly recruited his other kids to try and quash the rebellion
“Pops went ballistic,” Jill wrote in her book, according to The Ashley’s Reality Roundup.
“Then came the next wave, a consolidated effort from several of my siblings,” Jill wrote.
“They hit the phones, sending voicemails and texts all day long, each one pleading with us to get this resolved [with Jim Bob].”
Jill recalls that the efforts were ramped up when she requested a copy of her contract and hired an attorney.
“[They were] trying to figure out what our problem was and why we weren’t doing what Pops wanted,” Jill wrote.
In an obvious intimidation tactic, the siblings would show up unannounced and linger in her home well past midnight, at which time Jill or Derick would politely ask them to leave.
She added that the siblings often became upset when she would respectfully end the conversation and request that they leave her home.
Jill claims that for several years, Jim Bob expected his kids to work for him for free as “volunteers.”
In 2017, he finally agreed to pay them a “small, non-negotiable” stipend for their services.
Apparently, this was enough to convince the other Duggars that Jim Bob was a benevolent boss and that Jill and Derick were just being greedy.
“It seemed to me as if they had been brainwashed into thinking that they weren’t owed anything…that they should be nothing but grateful for all the gifts and good favors he was giving them,” Jill wrote.
From there, the siblings were happy to “pile on” her and Derick “when we caused trouble, but it seemed like nearly none of them were willing to question what Pops was doing.”
One of her siblings eventually confessed to Jill that Jim Bob had drawn a line in the sand and demanded that each of his kids choose a side.
“[The sibling said,] ‘Pops is telling everyone that if we don’t stand against you both on this, then we’re standing against him,” Jill wrote in her book.
“He said none of us can be neutral here, and that this affects all of us. He says we might all be sued as a result of what you’re doing.’”
Jill says she broke down in tears upon learning that her father had issued such an ultimatum.
“It was one thing for Pops to be angry at Derick and me, but how could he justify bringing his other children into it like this?” she wrote.
“How could he mislead them into thinking they might be sued…it made me sad for him. It made me scared for them.”
Jill says that Jim Bob eventually offered her a one-time $20,000 payment in exchange for her silence.
She turned the offer down.
At that point, most of the siblings cut off contact with Jill — a situation that only changed when Josh Duggar was arrested on child pornography charges, and they began to realize that Jim Bob had been lying to them all along.
“Some of my siblings started to reach out,” Jill wrote.
“For the first time it was clear that some of them were beginning to be skeptical of the narrative they’d been hearing at home,” she continued.
“As they looked for themselves at the Duggar family spectacle, they started to ask their own questions.”
Hopefully, they’ll continue to think for themselves and begin to see the truth about their father.
