When Jill Duggar’s debut memoir hit bookstores last year, fans expected a candid account of her difficult upbringing. And that’s exactly what they got.
As expected, the former reality star did do not have Portray her parents in a flattering light.
Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar were quick to speak out against the book, but it didn’t receive much sympathy online.
Jill has enjoyed a large and loyal fan base over the years, largely due to her willingness to speak truth to power and engage in difficult conversations.
But Jim Bob and Michelle have established themselves as pathological liars, so there’s no question at all as to which side provides the more accurate explanation.
Jill Duggar tells her story
In one of the book’s most harrowing excerpts, Jessa described the chaotic events that occurred after her parents learned that Josh Duggar sexually abused four of his sisters.
“Mom and Pops told us most of the details about Josh, so all I really knew was that he was sent away to stay with their friends. , just that he was working a construction job and hoped it wouldn’t last long,” before he came back to us. That was it,” she recalled.
“I was happy to be able to forget everything and move on.”
The scandal ultimately attracted the attention of community leaders in unexpected ways.
First, Josh confessed his crime to the girl he was courting.
She then wrote him a letter about the situation, but never sent it to him.
Instead, she stuffed the letter into a book and later lent it to a friend. It was a stunned friend who alerted the elders of the church to Josh’s sin.
Jill’s troubles
Jill said she was extremely anxious when the news broke. She feared that authorities would find the parents unfit and place the 19 children in an orphanage.
In the book, Jill was “afraid” that “someone was going to take us away” from Jim Bob and Michelle.
Of course, that didn’t happen, but perhaps it should have.
Josh was Jill’s main tormentor, but elsewhere in the book she recalls the emotional abuse she suffered at the hands of her father, Jim Bob.
Shortly after Jill welcomed her second son, Samuel, in 2017, Jim Bob caught Jill nursing her baby, mostly in secret.
Jim Bob expresses dissatisfaction
Apparently, this was a shocking moment of depravity for Jim Bob, and he later confronted Jill and gave her a book about the importance of humility.
“I cried when I got home. Even though no one else was in the room, I felt embarrassed and humiliated,” Jill wrote.
“Pop taught us from a young age that we needed to stand up for what we believed in, even when others disagreed,” she continues.
“Why didn’t he realize that by deciding to wear pants, I was practicing exactly what he taught us? I will always show respect to pop. When was he going to show me the same respect?”
Of course, we know that Jim Bob will never show Jill the respect she deserves.
But one can only imagine how painful that realization was for a young mother who grew up admiring her famous father.
Despite the controversy surrounding her book, Jill Duggar is still in talks with her family.
She attended Jana Duggar and Stephen Wisman’s wedding in August. And she’s still very close to Jinger Duggar, who also recently wrote a memoir.
Of course, there are also rumors that Jill is currently working on her second book. If so, it could cause a rift in her relationship with her parents.
And that might not be such a bad thing.
