‘Counting On’ Jill Duggar and Derick Dillard Shares Shocking Update on Relationship With Her Parents

Counting On fans were surprised when photos emerged online on Christmas showing Jill and Derick Dillard seemingly chatting with Jill’s estranged father Jim Bob Duggar during a family holiday gathering. However, Derick recently aimed to set the record straight about the encounter, taking to Instagram to inform people about what was really going on when those photos were taken.

As The Ashley has previously reported, Jill and Derick have been estranged from Jim Bob for years, with the tension presumably increasing after the 2023 release of Jill and Derick’s tell-all book about the Duggar Family. The couple’s book, Counting the Cost, recounts what the Dillards claim is the real story behind Jill’s family and their TLC shows, with many of the stories painting Jim Bob in a negative light. 

While many fans thought the Christmas photos meant Jill and Derick had called a truce with Jim Bob, Derick made it clear that this is not the case. Instead, he claimed that a Duggar family member purposely snapped the pics– unbeknownst to Derick and Jill— to make it appear that things in the family were all good.

Derick surfaced in the comment section of People magazine’s Instagram post about the photos, which contained a headline about the Dillards “mingling” with Jimmy B.

“I don’t think being ambushed, by being unknowingly photographed with someone you’re at odds with and do not respect, is considered ‘mingling,’” Derick wrote, before going on to suggest that Jim Bob purposely set up the situation so that the pictures could be snapped. (The photos were posted by Jill’s brother James— who, coincidentally, also posted photos last Christmas to show that Derick and Jill were at the Duggar house on Christmas. (Those photos did not include Jim Bob and were seemingly taken without Jill and Derick’s knowledge.)

“The truth is that Jim Bob approached me while we were there on Christmas Day, and that is when the photo was taken,” Derick wrote. “I have spoken to Jim Bob less than 10 minutes since the last time I was at that house over a year ago (and I happened to be photographed, unbeknownst to me, by the same person then as well).”

Derick also clarified that the festivities at the Duggar home were overrun with people, kids and even Jolly Old St. Nick, so he and Jill were not spending quality one-on-one time with Jim Bob, despite how it looked in the photos.

“There were over 100 people, the house is 8000 square feet, and Santa Clause was there, so this isn’t your typical intimate family gathering,” Derick wrote, before adding that he isn’t going to let “people” (cough, cough Jim Bob) manipulate the situation to look a certain way.

“We’re trying to be civil for the sake of our family, but that doesn’t mean everything is all hunky dorey, and it sure doesn’t mean that I’m not going to comment when people try to warp reality for their own purposes,” Derick said.

(The Ashley would like to point out that in the past, the Duggars have used People as their media mouthpiece to release stories about their family.)

In November, Jill shared on social media that her relationship with her mom and dad remains “complicated,” but that she is trying to keep them in her life.

“I feel like we are in a rebuilding phase now, with healthy boundaries still in place,” she explained. 

The Dillards have been estranged from Jim Bob since they took part in the Prime Video docuseries Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets in June 2023. “My dad does control a lot of things in the family,” Jill said in one scene. “Family relationships were already kinda rocky. Everything within the family dynamic has shifted, and not for the better.”

James Duggar/Instagram

A few months later, the couple continued to expose secrets about Jill’s upbringing in their memoir, Counting the Cost. Among other bombshells, they claimed that Jim Bob didn’t pay them to appear on the family’s reality shows, 19 Kids & Counting and Counting On.