Jill Duggar Dillard has opened up about the ‘awkward’ last interaction she had with father Jim Bob.
The 32-year-old revealed that when she first started to break away from her strict religious upbringing to find her independence, it created tension between the father-daughter duo.
She admitted to ET that ‘it’s not like it used to be’ between them before husband Derick Dillard added that ‘if you’re somebody that he can’t control then you’re cut off.’
The shift in dynamic became clear to her last time they spoke when Jim Bob, 58, showed up unannounced at a brunch she was enjoying with sister Jinger Duggar.
Jill Duggar Dillard, 32, has opened up about the ‘awkward’ last interaction she had with father Jim Bob
She admitted to ET that ‘it’s not like it used to be’ between them before husband Derick Dillard added that ‘if you’re somebody that he can’t control then you’re cut off’
Jill, who recently released bombshell memoir Counting the Cost, laid bare the encounter in a recent interview with the publication.
She said that while Jim Bob was friendly during the unexpected meeting, she could tell he was attempting to close himself off to her.
‘He won’t bring anything up when we’re all together,’ she said, noting that this can make the situation ‘awkward’ but not confrontational.
‘It’s not like it used to be… It used to you would get pulled to the side into a room and [told off], you know, behind closed doors,’ Jill said.
‘But now… there’s this respect of our boundary, where it would not fly. Like, we would pick up and leave [if] something came up.’
Derick weighed in on how he feels Jim Bob ‘controlled’ Jill and her sisters and why the patriarch is no longer part of their lives.
‘I think what’s sad is that the pattern we’ve seen is kinda happening to us, where if you’re somebody that he can’t control then you’re cut off,’ Derick added. ‘It’s like, “I can’t control you, so you’re cut off.”‘
‘You can hang out sometimes, and have surface-level conversations,’ Jill explained. ‘Which is what I am actually wanting right now.’
Derick weighed in on how he feels Jim Bob ‘controlled’ Jill and her sisters and why the patriarch is no longer part of their lives
Jill shared that she and Derrick had sent a letter to Jim Bob and wife Michelle ‘about not wanting to be verbally abused’ before the four sat down with a mediator
But it is not the first time that Jill has opened up about her strained relationship with her father.
In her recent memoir, she dished on another unpleasant interaction the pair had before she was ‘cut off.’
Jill shared that she and Derrick had sent a letter to Jim Bob and wife Michelle ‘about not wanting to be verbally abused’ before the four sat down with a mediator.
‘That letter you guys sent us,’ Jim Bob started the conversation, with Michelle adding, ‘It was the most disrespectful thing I’ve ever read.’
Jim Bob then claimed he was ‘offended’ by Jill’s accusations.
‘You sent me a text message, Jill. You said I was verbally abusing you. I was so offended by that, too.
‘You know in your heart that’s not right. Are you going to apologize for that?’ he asked.
When Jill remained speechless, she claimed he stood up and yelled, ‘You’re not going to apologize? Really?’
But it is not the first time that Jill has opened up about her strained relationship with her father – having laid bare several encounters in explosive memoir Counting The Cost
The 32-year-old revealed that when she first started to break away from her strict religious upbringing to find her independence, it created tension between the father-daughter duo
She then wrote that he ‘closed the gap’ between them in an ‘act of aggression.’
‘You know why you’re crying, don’t you? Your conscience is talking to you. That’s why,’ he continued yelling as she began to cry. ‘You’re guilty!’
Jill then defended herself to father, responding, ‘You want to know why I’m crying? It’s that you think I’m some kind of horrible person just because I wear pants and have a nose ring.’
She added: ‘You treat me like I’m a prodigal who’s turned her back on you. You treat me worse than you treat my pedophile brother.’
In response to the passage, Jim Bob and Michelle issued a statement to People.
‘We love all of our children very much. As with any family, few things are more painful than conflicts or problems among those you love,’ the statement read.
It continued: ‘We do not believe the best way to resolve conflicts, facilitate forgiveness and reconciliation, or to communicate through difficulties is through the media or in a public forum so we will not comment.’
Jill addressed the scandal with Josh in another segment of the book – after she and sister Jessa sat down with Megyn Kelly in June 2015 for a Fox News appearance
Jessa (left) and Jill (right) confirmed they were sexually assaulted by their older brother but denied that he was a pedophile
Josh (pictured with his wife and mother of his seven children, Anna, in February 2015) has since been jailed
Jill addressed the scandal with brother Josh in another segment of the book.
She and sister Jessa sat down with Megyn Kelly in June 2015 for a Fox News appearance, in which they confirmed they were sexually assaulted by their older brother but denied that he was a pedophile.
She revealed that her brother was present on set for the interview, claiming the experience ‘was like having a bandage ripped off a deep and open wound.’
‘Answering all Megyn’s questions, with Josh watching from a couch just out of shot, was like having a bandage ripped off a deep and open wound.
‘It was agony, so painful that I didn’t really pause to ask why Josh was allowed to be there in the first place,’ she wrote.
She continued: ‘What was worse was the fact that I’d hoped it would calm things down. It hadn’t. The paparazzi were still chasing us, the internet still feasting on us, poring over every statement from the network, every new photo, every new angle.’
‘My nightmares were getting worse and there was nothing I could do to block any of it out. All I was doing was surviving from one breath to the next,’ Jill admitted.
