News
Jill Duggar and Derick Dillard Reveal the Last Time They Saw Her Parents Before Christmas Reunion
Jill Dillard (née Duggar) and Derick Dillard admitted that they could barely remember the last time they saw her parents, Jim Bob Duggar and Michelle Duggar, while discussing their strained relationship with the couple on the Wednesday, January 10, episode of “The Unplanned Podcast.”
“Have we seen both of my parents?” Jill, 32, asked her husband, as she tried to recall her most recent interaction with Jim Bob, 58, and Michelle, 57. “I think we’ve just seen my mom.”
The podcast host wondered if the last time the two couples were together was when Jill and Derick’s son, Freddy, was born in July 2022. “Probably,” Derrick admitted.
However, Jill wasn’t so certain. “I’m trying to think,” she said, racking her brain. “Was it that or a wedding? Have there been any weddings since then? No, no, no … we saw them at a birthday party.”
When Derick questioned whose birthday the TLC alum was referring to, she responded, “Joy-Anna [Duggar] and Austyn [Forsyth] … one of their kids. Or was it a baby announcement? Some sort of family function thing.”
One thing Jill was certain about was that the event took place at some point after Freddys birth, but before her and Derick’s memoir, Counting the Cost, came out in September 2023. In the book, she detailed the complicated relationship that she had with some of her family members, which stemmed from the Dillard family’s decision to leave the Duggars’ TLC show Counting On in 2017.
Despite her estrangement from Jim Bob and Michelle, Jill said she wants to maintain a cordial relationship with her parents. When asked what she’d say to them today, she responded, “We love you guys. I think that’s the same thing that they’d say. We’ve texted. We just say, ‘We love you.’ We’re going to agree to disagree. We’re our own family and we’re comfortable being our own family and where we are at as the Dillard family. But we love [them] and we want to take steps to have a healthy relationship. What that looks like and what we’re comfortable with and what they’re comfortable with … we probably have different ideas about what that looks like. But we hope that we can move forward with mutual respect for each other.”
The episode of this podcast appears to have been recorded sometime before the end of 2023, as Jill and Derick seemingly reunited with her parents on Christmas. James Duggar shared photos from the family’s celebration, including a shot of Jill and Derick in Jim Bob and Michelle’s kitchen. However, there were no pictures that showed the estranged family members together.
