Count them out! Jill Duggar and her husband, Derick Dillard, spoke out about whey they walked away from Counting On and how it affected their family relationship.
“We found out we didn’t have as much control over our lives as it related to the show and stuff, as we needed,” Duggar, 29, said in a Wednesday, October 7, YouTube Q&A video. “We had to make a decision at that time to kind of put the show aside … to pursue our own goals and everything. That’s when we made that decision.”
The 19 Kids and Counting alum left the TLC series ahead of season 7, which aired in 2018, with her husband and hasn’t looked back.
“It was a really difficult decision but something we knew that we really needed to do for our family,” she added. “We don’t regret leaving the show.”
Dillard, 31, agreed with his wife and revealed that while they were filming, they didn’t see eye to eye with everyone involved.
“We were kind of put between a rock and a hard place where we had to choose between our family goals over filming, and it really felt like it was in the best interest as a family to pursue our family goals,” he said. “We will not go back on the show under the circumstances we were under when we left.”
Since leaving the series, the couple explained that there has been tension with a few of Duggar’s family members.
“There’s been some distancing there,” the mother of two said. “We’re not on the best terms with some of my family. We’ve had some disagreements, but we’re working toward healing definitely and restoration, but we’re having to kind of just take some time and heal.”
Duggar, who shares sons Israel, 5, and Samuel, 3, with Dillard, is confident with the pair’s choice to focus on their family of four.
“We’re doing what’s best for our family right now and just working through it I guess,” she concluded. “We are praying and trusting God that, like, the timeline is his and what that looks like and everything. So, we definitely appreciate your prayers, and we don’t want to go into detail.”
The couple began courting in November 2013 after being introduced by Duggar’s father, Jim Bob Duggar, who met Dillard on a mission trip to Nepal in 2012. The pair wed in June 2014.
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