Jill Duggar Dillard she doesn’t hold back in her upcoming book – especially when it comes to sharing details about her controversial family.
In an excerpt from her memoir Calculating cost published by People On Saturday, the 32-year-old former reality star recalled her and her husband’s meeting Rory Dillard that she had with her father Jim Bob Duggar and mom Michelle Duggar. And things got really intense during the chat!
After writing an open letter to her parents about their family issues, she and Derick sat down with Jim Bob and Michelle in an attempt to heal the rift between them. They even brought in a mediator to keep the conversation productive and civil. However, the gathering turned out to be anything but.
Related: Jim Bob put a wedge between Jill and her husband Derick to get what he wanted!
During the meeting, Jill told the couple that she wanted to “restore family relations very quickly” and “have a good discussion together” about the “hurtful things” that happened between them. Instead of hearing it out, Jim Bob had been angry with the 19 Children and Number alum. He sat “very quiet, tight-lipped, eyes locked in tears” as Michelle picked up the letter, calling it “‘the most disrespectful thing I’ve ever read.’ Jill said she quickly apologized, saying:
“‘We love you all and could have used more care. We wrote the letter together and we hoped it would help explain our feelings, but I know we kept adding and then we got tired and just thought we’d better get on with it…'”
But Jim Bob wasn’t done. He then apologized for a text message he received from Jill, where she accused him of being “verbally abusive”. His daughter wrote:
“I was nervous now. I remembered the message, I remembered sending it hoping it might wake Pops up to how bad I felt things had gotten, maybe get him to give us some space and let things calm down. I had written about how I didn’t want to be verbally abused, and that’s exactly how I felt at the time. I had felt it in El Salvador too. I wasn’t sure I could apologize for that. I looked at Rory and was speechless.”
Knowing he wasn’t getting an apology when the silence continued, Jim Bob reportedly stood up and took a step toward Jill in an “aggressive act.” She recalled:
“‘You’re not going to apologize?’ really?’ His voice was loud, and had an edge that I rarely heard. The moderator looked blank and was stuck in silence. Derick tensed, and I felt him preparing to enter. I squeezed his hand, hoping he would get the message.”
Jill continued in the episode:
“He towered over me, his whole body burning with anger. My face was flushed red. My eyes filled with tears. Then there was a long, terrible silence that I wanted to fill but still couldn’t. Derick’s hand was shaking in me, and I loosened as hard as I ever had, with great effort to hold his tongue.”
While Jill was crying and “leaning up” in her seat, Jim Bob continued to scream. He said her emotional response at the time was because she felt “guilty” for what she had done. At that point, Jill had had enough. She fired back at her father, accusing him of treating her “worse than” her “pedophile brother” Josh Duggar, who molested her and other siblings and is currently in prison on pornography charges. Jill wrote:
“‘You want to know why I’m crying?’ My voice cracked, my eyes lit up. “It’s that you think I’m a terrible person just because I’m wearing pants and a nose ring, and yet you see you that girl out there and praise her. That’s why I’m crying, Daddy. I’m changing and changing, just like that girl out there, but you can’t see it. You treat me like I’m a prodigal who turned back on you. You treat me worse than you treat my pedophile brother.'”
It’s a shame that Jim Bob would treat Jill worse than her convicted pedophile brother.
Thoughts, Perezcious readers? Let us know in the comments below.
[Image via MEGA/WENN, TLC/YouTube, Jill Duggar/Instagram]
