Jill Duggar Reveals She and Derick Dillard Threatened Dad Jim Bob With a Protective Order

Jill Duggar revealed that she threatened her father, Jim Bob Duggar, with a protective order while sharing an update about where he stands with her husband, Derick Dillard.

“It used to be really great,” Jill, 32, said about Jim Bob’s relationship with Derick, 34, while appearing on the Tuesday, October 24, episode of Christy Carlson Romano’s “Vulnerable” podcast. “I think Derick trusted my dad and my dad trusted him.”

The Counting On alum added that their dynamic with Jim Bob, 58, changed when “they started having some differences” and they weren’t “falling in line with everything.” She added that Derick and Jim Bob had some “really hard conversations.”

While reflecting on a recent interaction, Jill explained that Derick stood up to the Duggar patriarch and argued it wasn’t OK how he was treating her. “I think my dad got the picture when Derick was telling him, basically like, if you keep contacting her directly, then I will have to file a protective order,” she recalled, adding that her husband is an attorney.

Despite admitting that their relationship with Jim Bob is currently “rocky,” Jill explained that she and Derick have hope that “things can get better.” She added, “But we’re not rushing things either with my family. We want to have good relationships. We want there to be better trust.”

Jill then insisted that she stands by her decision to maintain space from Jim Bob, Michelle Duggar and some of her siblings. “It’s not that you don’t care, but you have to set some boundaries, do what’s good in the moment,” the former TLC personality stated. “When you are stronger, when you are healthier, when you get to a place where you’re able to do what you need to do, then maybe you can talk about putting yourself back in a situation like that with healthier boundaries occasionally.”

The podcast appearance is not the first time Jill has opened up about her estrangement from her family. She and Derick discussed the tense dynamic in Prime Video’s docuseries Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets, as well as in their September memoir, Counting the Cost.

Additionally, Derick revealed his negative feelings toward his father-in-law and claimed Jim Bob had “control” over the Duggar family.

“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 told Entertainment Tonight in September. “It’s like, ‘I can’t control you, so you’re cut off.’”

Jill added, “It’s not like it used to be … It used to be, you would get pulled to the side into a room and [told off], you know, behind closed doors.”

Due to the new boundaries she has set, the mother of three explained that Jim Bob’s tactics “would not fly” today. “He won’t bring anything up when we’re all together,” Jill continued, adding that she and Derick “would pick up and leave [if] something [like] that came up.”

“You can hang out sometimes, and have surface-level conversations,” Jill continued. While she said it “might be awkward,” the 19 Kids and Counting alum admitted they are the kind of interactions she is “actually wanting right now.”