Jill Duggar revealed that her dad Jim Bob Duggar earned a hefty sum for their TLC family reality shows 19 Kids and Counting and Counting On. Jill, 32, claimed in her new tell-all memoir, Counting the Cost, that Jim Bob, 58, was paid roughly $8 million from the two shows, according to InStyle. 19 Kids and Counting premiered in 2008 and was canceled in 2015 because of Jill’s brother Josh Duggar‘s molestation scandal. The spinoff series, Counting On, aired for five years until TLC axed the show after Josh’s arrest for child pornography.
Jill and her husband Derick Dillard, 34, detailed how Jim Bob spent his money in their memoir. “Over the years Pops had bought more and more properties, and his fleet of private aircraft now contained multiple airplanes, including one with ten seats,” the couple wrote, per InStyle. “There was no denying that he was a generous man who had helped a lot of people, but it was also true that he’d grown rich off the show and had fought hard to keep that under wraps.”
Jill further alleged that Jim Bob “tricked” the couple the day before her wedding in 2014 by having them sign a contact that abided them to the show for the next five years. Jill claimed her dad eventually agreed to pay the couple a “lump sum” that they said was basically worth “minimum wage,” so they turned him down. The couple’s financial issues were resolved in January when they received $175K, Jill said in her book.
Counting the Cost, which came out Sept. 12, is loaded with wild secrets about the Duggar family. Jill wrote about her father’s alleged wrongdoings including when he threatened to lower her inheritance because she and Derick were trying to get the money that was owed to them from the family’s reality shows. “‘If you attack us, probably your inheritance will be lowered significantly,’ ” Jill claimed her father said to her. “’I love you, but I am grieved by the disrespect and the accusations that continue.’”
The mother-of-three also claimed that Jim Bob treated her “worse” than Josh, who was sentenced to prison for over 12 years for child pornography charges in May 2022. While her dad got a lot of attention in the book, Jill did write about her mom, Michelle, and that they are still in contact, even though the entire family dynamic has changed. Counting The Cost: A Memoir was written by Jill, Derick, and Craig Brolase.