‘19 Kids and Counting’ Star Jill Duggar Accuses Father Jim Bob Duggar of Treating Her “Worse” Than Her “Pedophile Brother”

Jill Duggar is not holding back in her new memoir, Counting the Cost, which was released earlier today. In an excerpt obtained by People, the former 19 Kids and Counting star accused her estranged father, Jim Bob Duggar, of treating her worse than her “pedophile brother.”

According to Jill — who left the TLC franchise in 2017 — she sat down with her parents and a mediator for a discussion when tensions between them reached a boiling point. During the conversation, she brought up her older brother Josh Duggar — who was sentenced to more than 12 years in prison for downloading and possessing images of child sexual abuse.

While Jill wrote that she tried to explain that she had never intended to “hurt” her parents — and that she hoped to “restore familial relationships” with the meeting — she said Jim Bob “had his own list of things he wanted to talk about.” According to her, his “body language shifted” as he was “sitting very still, lips tight, eyes locked in a scowl that had been sculpted out of rock.”

After Jim Bob had allegedly brought up a message she sent him in which she claimed he was “verbally abusing” her, Jill recalled feeling “nervous.”

“I remembered the message, remembered sending it in the hope that it might wake Pops up to how bad I felt things had gotten, to maybe make him give us a little space and let things calm down,” she wrote. “I’d written about not wanting to be verbally abused, which was exactly how I’d felt at the time. I’d felt it in El Salvador as well. I wasn’t sure that I could apologize for that.”

When Jill didn’t adhere to her father’s demands and apologize for the accusations, she said he “suddenly stood up” and began to yell at her.

“We were facing each other from opposite couches, open space between us. Pops took a step toward me, closing the gap,” she said. “It wasn’t a gesture of reconciliation. It was an act of aggression. He towered over me, his whole body fueled with anger. My face flushed red. My eyes filled with tears.”

Eventually, Jill spilled her heart out as she referred to a young female fan whom her father had taken a video with before heading into the meeting.

“‘You want to know why I’m crying?'” she remembered asking Jim Bob. “‘It’s that you think I’m some kind of horrible person just because I wear pants and have a nose ring, and yet you see that girl outside and praise her. That’s why I’m crying, Daddy. I’m evolving and changing, just like that girl out there, but you can’t see it. 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.'”

Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar have since released their own statement to People about the alleged incident.

“We love all of our children very much,” they said. “As with any family, few things are more painful than conflicts or problems among those you love … 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.”

The Duggar family became a reality television sensation when their show — originally known as 17 Kids and Counting — premiered on TLC in 2008.

It was ultimately canceled in 2015 after it was reported that Josh had molested several of his underage sisters when he was a teen. A spinoff show focusing on the older Duggar siblings was eventually released called Counting On, but was ultimately canceled in 2021 when Josh was arrested for child pornography.