Jill Duggar Dillard is opening up about how being on a reality show negatively affected her marriage and family.
The 32-year-old formerly appeared on the hit TLC show “19 Kids and Counting” and later, “Counting On.” Dillard has a new book coming out that delves deeper into her experience of being on reality TV alongside her husband, Derick Dillard, and their children.
“It caused a lot of frustration in our marriage,” the former reality star told People. “Especially early on, where he would feel a certain way about filming something. I’d be like, ‘I hear you, I feel you, I also don’t want to do whatever it is they’re asking us to do either. But we have to.'”
“It definitely got between us,” she added.
Dillard told the outlet that she participated in the series partly because of her desire to please her parents.
“No matter your age, you are to obey your parents wishes and you even have to ask them for their blessing for any major moment in your life,” Dillard said. “That could be buying a house, moving to a different state, where to go to school. We were dealing with this a lot when we were trying to make decisions for our family, and we were really wrestling back and forth with it.”
“I saw how deeply we were in an argument one time, and I was like, ‘Whoa, this is not okay,'” she continued. “When I saw how it was affecting our marriage, I think that was another wake-up call for me. It was like, okay, we need to either fight this battle together, or it’s going to rip us apart. So yeah, we had to join forces at that point.”
CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP
Derick claims that the Duggar family patriarch, Jill’s father Jim Bob Duggar, was a source of their trouble.
“Whenever we were at odds with what her dad thought we should be doing with filming, he would say things that would be very damaging,” Derick told People. “He would weaponize the relationship and say, ‘Is this you Jill, or is this you, Derek? Are you leading your wife astray and doing things that are not supportive of marriage?’ And I think that was a red flag.”
Jim Bob and his wife Michelle Duggar responded to the allegations with a statement. It said, “We love all of our children very much. As with any family, few things are more painful than conflicts or problems among those you love… We do not believe the best way to resolve conflicts, facilitate forgiveness and reconciliation, or to communicate through difficulties is through the media or in a public forum so we will not comment.”
Derick and Jill said they got through the hard times with the help of therapy, which Jill noted was “the gift we didn’t know we needed.”
Their joint book “Counting the Cost” will be available beginning September 12.