Former Counting On star Derick Dillard, the husband of Jill (Duggar) Dillard, took to Twitter earlier this week to slam TLC, the network that airs the series. He also made some surprising claims about his father-in-law, Jim Bob Duggar in the tweets, which have since been deleted. Dillard has not appeared on the series since 2017 after he made transphobic remarks about TLC star Jazz Jennings.
Back on Tuesday, a fan asked Dillard about how much the Duggar children make for appearing on 19 Kids and Counting and Counting On.
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“Derick, this is very troubling,” the fan asked, reports InTouch Weekly. “17, 18 and 19 Kids and Counting and Counting On made at least [sic] billion dollars since in production last 10 years — guarantee they made more. Why don’t you ‘kids’ adults when on [sic] show have their own contracts? Do you know how much money these shows make?”
You talk as though you know what happens behind closed doors. You don’t know our story.
— Derick Dillard (@derickmdillard) November 14, 2019
“[TLC] has issues. They begged us not to [quit] filming, but then didn’t want to talk directly with us about why,” Dillard claimed. “If money is all they care about, then it’s going to catch up with them – you must care about [people]. All I’ve got to say is, they better lawyer-up [because] a storm is inevitable.”
In October, Dillard appeared to accuse Duggar of keeping money the family earned from the series without doling it out.
One fan asked Dillard why Duggar gets to keep “all the money for the show.” Dillard said he did not know and “you would have to ask him that.” On Tuesday, a fan responded to the tweet, asking, “He negotiated for you also or just Jill?” Dillard claimed that Duggar negotiated contracts “for everyone, but without telling anyone.”
On Wednesday, one fan told Dillard, “This is naive and not even a little bit true. TLC doesn’t owe you anything in our society, Discovery Inc. is lawyered to the brim. You have *nothing* on them, they would bury you in legal fees into oblivion. If you want to sue someone, sue your father in law.”
“I don’t think you understand how our legal system works. You don’t get a pass on justice just because you have resources. That might work if it’s a close call, but not otherwise. You just might not hear about it because they settle out of court,” Dillard replied.
In 2017, it was reported that TLC fired Dillard after his transphobic and bullying tweets directed at Jennings, who stars on I Am Jazz. Dillard then apologized, but the apology was criticized since he used male pronouns when Jennings prefers to use female pronouns.
Dillard has repeatedly claimed TLC did not fire him, but he instead made the decision to leave the series.
“Unbelievable what’s considered newsworthy these days, but then again, this is how I first heard that I was ‘fired,’” he wrote in a December 2017 tweet. “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 September, Dillard told TLC fans he stopped doing missionary work because TLC “wouldn’t release us from a bogus contract that we weren’t even aware of.”
“You quit missionary work because of TLC? I’m not following your train of thought,” a Twitter user asked Dillard. “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 replied in a now-deleted tweet.
Dillard is now a law student and reportedly has a job as a clerk with the Arkansas Attorney General’s Office.
Photo credit: Getty Images
