The former 'Counting On' star admits she and her husband Derick Dillard have been distancing themselves from her family as they are currently 'not on the best terms.'
- Oct 8, 2020
AceShowbiz - Through their portrayal on their reality series, the Duggars are known as a close-knit family. That, however, has changed for at least one of them. Jill Duggar reveals that there's a rift between and her husband Derick Dillard with some members of her family.
The 29-year-old opens up about the family drama in a new Q&A video posted on YouTube on Wednesday morning, October 7. "There's been some distancing there," says the mother of two. "We're not on the best terms with some of my family. We've had some disagreements, but we're working towards healing definitely and restoration, but we're having to kind of just take some time and heal."
She admits that it's been "difficult," but "we're doing what’s best for our family right now and just working through, it I guess." She goes on sharing her hope of reconciliation with her family, "We are praying and trusting God that like the timeline is his and what that looks like and everything. So we definitely appreciate your prayers, and we don't want to go into detail."
While Jill doesn't divulge what caused the friction with her family, she does explain the reason behind her decision to leave "Counting On" in 2017. Their departure came after her husband Derick landed in hot water for his transphobic tweets about transgender teen Jazz Jennings, but the backlash was apparently not a factor in their decision.
"We left the show three years ago because basically our family goals that we had for ourselves didn't align with what we found out," she opens up. "We ended up finding out that we didn't have as much control over our lives as it related to the show and stuff as we felt like we needed. We had to make a decision at that time to kind of put the show aside just to pursue our own goals."
Jill admits it wasn't an easy decision to make, but at the end of the day, she thinks "it was a good decision for us." She explains, "It was a really difficult decision, but something that we knew we needed to do for our family."
The couple, who shares sons Samuel Scott, 3, and Israel David, 5, doesn't rule out a possibility of returning to the show, but there has to be some changes. "We will not go back on the show under the circumstances that we were under at the time that we left," Derick says. "Meaning just as a family, we have to be able to make decisions that allow us to navigate our lives and have the information and control so that we know whether or not we can even plan anything."
Jill adds, "Right now we have no plans to join back into the how or anything. We don't regret leaving the show. We feel like it was the best thing for our family." Derick agrees, saying, "We have our lives back now."
