(LA Times) For more than a decade, Jill Duggar was the wholesome star of “19 Kids and Counting” and “Counting On,” the sweetly obedient daughter of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar who became the first woman in the family to marry and seemed destined to follow in her parents’ footsteps. Instead, she’s now calling out her family for exploiting her on reality TV.
In “Counting the Cost,” a memoir released on Tuesday, Duggar sheds unprecedented light on the inner workings of her sprawling Christian fundamentalist family, who rose to fame on the cable network TLC and later saw their empire crumble when first-born son Josh Duggar was convicted on child pornography charges in 2021.
The book details Duggar’s decision to walk away from “Counting On” in 2017 — after spending roughly half her life on camera — and her transformation from the cheerful daughter nicknamed “Sweet Jilly Muffin” into a grown woman who wears pants, uses birth control and drinks the occasional piña colada. However, Duggar is not here to expose every family secret; she does not elaborate on the sexual abuse she allegedly experienced as a child — she remains adamant that the information should never have become public — and her brother Josh is a marginal figure in the story. But she has plenty to say about her family’s finances, the toxic dynamic created by their TV stardom and the role that faith played in it all.
“Counting the Cost” paints a critical — if also loving — portrait of family patriarch Jim Bob Duggar, whose obsession with capitalizing on the family’s “window of opportunity” and belief in his God-given authority over his offspring led to their financial exploitation, creating painful rifts that remain unresolved. (The book, published under her maiden name, was written with her husband, Derick Dillard, and author Craig Borlase.) The book details how reality TV made Jim Bob into a wealthy man with an expansive…to continue reading click here.
This article was written by Merideth Blake and published at the LA Times
