Former Counting On star Derick Dillard, the husband of Jill (Duggar) Dillard, has long claimed he was not fired by TLC. In a series of now-deleted tweets published Thursday, Dillard said the couple made the decision not to appear on the show because it interrupted their missionary work. TLC reportedly fired Dillard after he made transphobic rants against fellow TLC star Jazz Jennings in 2017.
On Thursday, a fan asked Dillard why he was no longer doing missionary work.
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“TLC wouldn’t release us from a bogus contract that we weren’t even aware of,” Dillard replied, according to screenshots published by The Daily Mail.
The Twitter user was confused about what his missionary work had to do with TLC.
“You quit missionary work because of TLC? I’m not following your train of thought,” the Twitter user asked. “Any ‘bogus contract’ you had was worked out between TLC and Jim Bob. You might want to talk to your father-in-law if you feel you were screwed.”
“What do you mean you don’t follow? It makes perfect sense considering the fact that thats (sic) why we quit filming – TLC kept trying to keep us from missionary work,” Dillard snapped back.
Dillard has not appeared on Counting On since his controversial tweets in August 2017, when he was accused of bullying Jennings, who stars on I Am Jazz. The series chronicles Jennings’ life as a transgender teen and will be back for a sixth season next year.
“What an oxymoron… a ‘reality’ show which follows a non-reality,” Dillard wrote in one tweet, responding directly to TLC’s promotional tweet for the show. “‘Transgender’ is a myth. Gender is not fluid; it’s ordained by God.”
Dillard later wrote, “I pity Jazz, [for] those who take advantage of him in order [to] promote their agenda, including the parents who allow these kinds of decisions [to] be made by a child. It’s sad that [people] would use a juvenile this way. Again, nothing against him, just unfortunate what’s on TV these days.”
The apology was also criticized, since Jennings uses female pronouns.
Since then, Dillard has insisted repeatedly he was not fired by TLC, but it was instead his decision to leave the show.
“Unbelievable what’s considered newsworthy these days, but then again, this is how I first heard that I was ‘fired,’” he wrote in December 2017. “For the record, I was never fired. I just felt it best for my family to cut ties months ago, as we are heading in a different direction.”
In April 2018, he told a fan, “They won’t tell you that I was ever fired because I wasn’t… We wanted to leave and they didn’t want us to. That’s the truth.”
Dillard also criticized another TLC show last year when the network announced Nate and Jeremiah By Design starring Nate Berkus and his husband, Jeremiah Brent.
“What a travesty of family. It’s sad how blatant the liberal agenda is, such that it both highlights and celebrates a lifestyle so degrading to children on public television as if it should be normal,” Dillard wrote of the show in April 2018.
“We want to let our viewers know that Derick Dillard has not participated in Counting On for months and the network has no plans to feature him in the future,” TLC said in a statement in 2017. “We want to reiterate that Derick’s personal statements do not reflect the views of the network. TLC is proud to share the story of Jazz Jennings and her family and will continue to do so.”
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