Jill Duggar admitted that she hasn’t seen her father Jim Bob Duggar in a long time during an appearance on The Unplanned Podcast on Wednesday, January 10. The former 19 Kids and Counting star explained that it’s likely been at least over a year since she or her husband Derick Dillard saw him. Jill has opened up about past issues with her dad in her memoir Counting the Cost.
The former TLC star explained that she hadn’t seen her father since before her book was released. Derick explained that the last time they saw him was “probably” around the time their son Frederick was born. “That was over a year ago,” he said on the podcast. He also mentioned that they had seen Jill’s mother Michelle Duggar in the past year.
Jill explained that they saw him at “some kind of family function thing,” but she wasn’t sure if it was a wedding, birthday party, or something similar. She did point out that while the book was written, it was before it was released. “That was before the book,” she said. “That was since we had our last baby.”
Since the book dropped, Jill did say that she’d spoken to her parents, but hasn’t broached the topic of the book. “I didn’t sit down and have a conversation and say, ‘What do you think about the book?'” she explained. “I’ve heard that they did [read the book]. I heard they listened to it on audiobook or something.”
Jill also explained that figuring out how to work out issues with her parents is something that she and her husband are still trying to figure out. “They’re my parents, and I’m going to tread lightly. I also don’t want to create more controversy. It’s kind of like when you get together for the holidays, and there are certain things that you just don’t want to bring up. It’s probably a sore subject. I know that they would probably want to sit down with a therapist or something and just hash it out, but we’ve tried that before, and it’s just not the healthiest way to go about it,” she said. “We’re still on the road to figuring things out.”
In the book, Jill claimed that her dad would criticize her decision to wear pants or get a nose ring. She also claimed that her dad had threatened to “significantly” lower her inheritance if she kept up a fight about her contract regarding the TLC show.