‘Counting On’ Alum Derek Dillard Reveals ‘Painful Burning of Bridges’ for His and Jill Duggar’s Family

Derick Dillard is revealing just how damaging his and wife Jill (Duggar) Dillard’s exit from Counting On has been for their relationship with the rest of the Duggar family. After previously slamming father-in-law, Jim Bob Duggar for allegedly being the only member of the family making a profit from the TLC series, Dillard went into detail about the apparent schism in the comment section from his most recent Instagram.

“So do you mean to say that none of the Duggar children ever got paid for being on the show? Or are you saying that you believed they weren’t paid enough for their efforts,” one follower asked in the comment section, as first reported by InTouch Weekly. “You would have the right to be upset either way.”

Explaining that he and his wife first began filming Counting On as “volunteers,” Dillard detailed how things devolved from there both on the show and in real life.

“It eventually became apparent that it wasn’t even volunteerism, because typically volunteerism assumes that you can leave without serious risks, such as legal/financial threats, in addition to the extreme emotional pressure from within and without your family, which unfortunately end with painful burning of bridges just so that you can protect your family,” he explained.

Dillard has explained of the financial situation surrounding the 19 Kids and Counting and the subsequent spinoffs that Jim Bob was the only member of the family to have a contract with the network, writing, “It was presented to us as something that was done as a ministry that TLC periodically subsidized in the form of reimbursements for things like gas, restaurants, travel, etc … but not any actual pay on top of that.”

It appears that the Dillard family’s relationship with the Duggars is more difficult since their exit, with the law student previously revealing on Instagram that he and his wife are not allowed in the Duggar home without Jim Bob’s supervision.

“We’re not allowed in the house when [Jim Bob] isn’t there,” he explained. “Jill even has to ask [Jim Bob’s] permission to go over to the house to help her sister when she was in labor because her sister wanted help, but Jill couldn’t provide assistance until we got it cleared from JB.”

“We were made to believe we didn’t have a choice and that we’d be sued if we refused,” he added of their initial involvement in Counting On. “However, once we became more enlightened, we realized that we could easily defend ourselves in against a lawsuit from the family/TLC.”

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