Telling her truth. While Jill Duggar has been outspoken about her difficult relationship with her family over the years, she still has love for the people who raised her.
The former TLC personality, 32, shared an inspiring message via Instagram following the release of Prime Video’s bombshell docuseries Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets. “Life [is] a journey. Sometimes courage is built in the toughest storms,” she captioned a pic of herself posing by water on Sunday, June 4.
One fan took to the comments section to praise the Arkansas native’s involvement in the four-part series, which explored the controversial religious group the Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP), which the Duggars have followed for years. “You did a great job on the documentary! I don’t even see any ‘dishonoring’ of your parents; just facts about what happened and captivating on all the beautiful childhood memories,” the user wrote.
The fan continued: “Keep on doing what you’re doing. Oh, and singing Hey Girl by Anne Wilson. I call that one of my ‘freedom songs.’ Never forget who you are, and who made you the way you are.”
The Counting the Cost author — who shares sons Israel, 8, Samuel, 5, and Frederick, 11 months, with husband Derick Dillard — replied to the comment, writing, “Thanks. ❤️ I love my parents.”
In the doc, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar’s daughter opened up about her experience growing up on TV, revealing that she was never paid for her time on 19 Kids and Counting and its spinoff Counting On. Instead, she claimed that all their earnings went to her father.
Elsewhere in the series, Jill claimed she felt “obligated” to help her family following the aftermath of Josh Duggar’s molestation scandal. News broke in May 2015 that the now-35-year-old had molested five girls between 2002 and 2003. One month later, Jill and her sister Jessa Duggar revealed during an interview with Megyn Kelly that they were among their brother’s victims.
Jill Duggar and Derick Dillard. Courtesy of Prime Video/Youtube
“It’s not something that I’m proud of,” Jill said of the interview in the docuseries. “If I hadn’t felt obligated to like, one, do it for the sake of the show and two, do it for the sake of my parents, I wouldn’t have done it.”
Several years after the initial scandal, Josh — who shares seven kids with his wife, Anna Duggar — was arrested for possession of child pornography in April 2021. He was officially sentenced to 12.5 years in prison in May 2022.
TLC cut ties with the Duggars amid the controversy, canceling Counting On in 2021. Jill revealed in the Prime Video series that she and Derick, 34, were offered money by her father to continue filming the spinoff before they left in 2017. “In order to receive that, you had to sign another deal with my dad [and] his production company, Mad Family Inc.,” she claimed. “It would be [for], like, forever. We were automatically like, ‘We’re done.’”
The couple spoke out about their decision to quit the show in an October 2020 YouTube video. “We found out we didn’t have as much control over our lives as it related to the show and stuff, as we needed,” Jill said at the time. “We had to make a decision at that time to kind of put the show aside … to pursue our own goals and everything. That’s when we made that decision.”
Though she called the choice a “difficult one,” Jill noted that she and Derick did not “regret leaving the show.”
While her relationships with her parents and siblings have become rocky since distancing herself from the family, Jill is happy to have more control over her own life.
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“Eventually you start making your own decisions, like the nose ring that I got, and it’s piece by piece,” she said during the docuseries. “Little by little … [you] do what you need to survive.”
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