The husband of Jill Duggar Dillard is not holding back in the wake of his brother-in-law Josh Duggar's child pornography charges.
Derick Dillard, who has been married to Jill since June 2014, has been active on Twitter trying to dispel rumors surrounding the family, or former TLC reality show "19 Kids and Counting," as it relates to himself and his wife, Jill.
Following Josh Duggar's confession to molesting four of his sisters in 2015, TLC canceled "19 Kids and Counting" and launched "Jill & Jessa: Counting On," a move Dillard now claims was nothing more than rebranding.
In Twitter conversations dated April 30 and May 1, Dillard, 32, revealed damning details alleging that family patriarch Jim Bob Duggar and his wife, Michelle Duggar, are to blame for the family's turmoil.
When a user named Tamara asked him, "If you cancel one show cancel all. Why should Jessa and Ben or John an abbie suffer. That's my point Josh and his parents have nothing to do with the other kids. Leave their show alone. Josh was already removed from the original show. Counting on doesn't even talk about him."
Dillard's response suggested that only parents Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar saw monetary compensation for all of the programming.
"It’s the parents’ show, you know that, right?" he wrote on Twitter.
In the same conversation, another user weighed saying "Jill & Jessa: Counting On" felt like TLC's attempt to rebrand following Josh Duggar's scandal.
Dillard replied, "Yes, that’s exactly what they called it — a rebranding. Same business structure as 19K&C (I.e., one person makes the decisions for all and one person got paid) but it would be 'rebranded' to make people think it was different. We pushed back often, and we were threatened often."
In a second tweet Dillard continued, "If you’ll notice, we refused to go to the photo shoot for the intro of the show, 'Jill & Jessa: counting on.' That’s why we weren’t in the intro, but had to do the shows. Finally, we called their bluff and quit. Will explain more later in a different context."
When one commenter suggested the new show was TLC's way of handling Josh Duggar's scandal "well," Dillard replied, "How do you know how it was handled? It was not handled well. The public was deceived. Their plan worked. And we were told to keep filming and keep our mouths shut. We called their bluff and left."
In a statement shared with Us Weekly, the TLC network said it is "saddened to learn about the continued troubles involving Josh Duggar. ... '19 Kids and Counting' has not aired since 2015. TLC canceled the show on the heels of prior allegations against Josh Duggar and he has not appeared on air since then."
In recent years, Jill Duggar Dillard has been open about the distance she keeps from her family.
“We’re not on the best terms with some of my family,” she revealed in 2020. “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.”
- Watch TODAY All Day! Get the best news, information and inspiration from TODAY, all day long.
- Sign up for the weekly TODAY Parents Newsletter!
