Is it possible that Derick Dillard and his wife, Jill Duggar, are on the outs with the entire Duggar family? That's what it seems like, at least according to Derick.
Derick shared some photos of his and Jill's Christmas celebrations on December 27th, and the father-of-two was feeling in a sharing mood apparently, because he gave a lot of insight into his relationship with Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar.
"Were you with your extended family today or did you have a quiet little Christmas? Either way, I'm sure it was wonderful!" one fan wrote.
"We had our own little Christmas," Derick replied. "Some international friends joined us."
That seems pretty harmless enough, but as the questions started to continue, Derick made it clear that there's a strained relationship between him and patriarch of the family.
"[Do] Jill and Derik go to her parents house?" another fan questioned. "I see so many pics of [the] Duggar family but they aren't never in the pictures."
"We're not on 19 kids and counting anymore," Derick responded.
A fan pointed out that the show 19 Kids and Counting was actually canceled years ago, after it was revealed that Josh Duggar had molested his sisters and the family had helped cover it up. Derick suggested that the show wasn't canceled at all.
"No it wasn't. Just renamed," he said. "But I guess if you want to get technical, it does have a different name now."
Now, it's important to remember that Derick was fired from TLC after posted homophobic and transphobic tweets online, specifically about Jazz Jennings, a transgendered teen who has her own show on TLC. The network cut ties with him almost immediately.
"We want to let our viewers know that Derick Dillard has not participated in Counting On for months and the network has no plans to feature him in the future," they said. "We want to reiterate that Derick's personal statements do not reflect the views of the network. TLC is proud to share the story of Jazz Jennings and her family and will continue to do so."
Despite his past remarks, a fan suggested that Jim Bob and Michelle were given a second chance after the news of covering up Josh's assaults, and so should Derick.
“JB and Michelle [Duggar] have worked their way back on, so Jill and [her] fam should be able to also!”
“Yes, [JB and Michelle did] because it’s their show," Derick pointed out. "We’ve only made guest appearances over the years for [a] wedding, birth, etc. We’ve never had any contact with TLC, hence not knowing there was a contract. Nobody from TLC has even mentioned to us what they would prefer that we say or not say.”
A fan asked whether there were any hard feelings between Derick and rest of the Duggar family.
"No hard feelings," he said. "There are just more things we are aware of now. The truth will always set you free.”
He also clarified that he wasn't trash talking is in-laws at all.
“I haven’t trash talked, just answered questions that others should know about us so they’re no longer deceived like we were.”
The deception part here is key, because Derick has often said that he and Jill had the wool pulled over their eyes from both TLC and the Duggar family, specifically regarding money.
“For a long time, Jill and I were under the impression that the family didn’t make any money from the show, but, rather, it was presented to us kids as something that was done as a ministry that TLC periodically subsidized in the form [of] reimbursements for things like gas, restaurants, travel, etc. … But not any actual pay on top of that,” he told a fan who brought up compensation.
Derick does claim that he and Jill spend time with the rest of the Duggars, it's just not as much as people might think.
"It’s harder now because we're not allowed at the house when JB isn’t there," he revealed. “Jill even had to ask JB permission to go over to the house to help her sister when she was in labor because her sister wanted her help, but Jill couldn’t provide the assistance until we got it cleared with JB.”
It's a pretty shocking allegation that Jill needs permission to go to her family home, but when it comes to the Duggar family...is anything really shocking anymore?