Jill Duggar Dillard says distancing from her family ‘didn’t go over very well’
Jill Duggar Dillard says her and her husband's decision to distance themselves from her large family has complicated her relationships with her relatives.
In 2017, Dillard, 29, quit the Duggar family's show "Counting On," which still airs on TLC, and decided to create some space to carve out her own life with husband Derick Dillard from the reality show clan.
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"It didn't go over very well with anyone," she told People in a story published Wednesday. "By that point we'd had enough. We knew we had to pull out completely to re-evaluate and get our bearings."
Dillard was also part of the large family's original hit series on TLC, "19 Kids and Counting," which ran from 2008 to 2015.
"I never expected this to happen or for it to get to this point," she said. "But I'm realizing I can't put a timeline on healing. I love my family and they love me. I really just have to follow God's lead and take it one day at a time."
Part of the couple's decision to step away was that their employment was dictated by the show, Dillard explained. "Our control to choose what jobs we were allowed to accept and even where we were allowed to live was taken away from us," she said.
TLC declined to comment when reached by TODAY.
She also spoke about a YouTube video from earlier this month, where she and her husband answered fan questions and said that they are "not on the best terms" with some of her family.
"We’ve had some disagreements and stuff, but we’re working towards healing definitely and restoration, but we’re having to kind of just take some time and heal and just doing what’s best for our family right now and just working through it, I guess," Dillard said in the video.
After being raised in an ultra-religious household, Dillard has decided to push the boundaries she grew up with. Last month she posted a photo confirming she drinks alcohol at social occasions, and she revealed that she and her husband use non-hormonal birth control. She also cut her long hair and got a nose ring.
"Sometimes, it's a good thing being OK with other people not being OK," she told People.
The couple, who have sons Israel, 5, and Samuel, 3, also spoke last month on YouTube about potentially having more children.
"We would love more kids if God chooses to give us more," Dillard said. "How many? I don't know that we have a number. Probably not 20 kids."
Dillard and her parents, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, did not immediately respond to TODAY's request for comment.
