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Jill Duggar is continuing to open up about growing up on reality TV. Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar raised their 19 kids based on the Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP) values. When they found a home on reality TV with Discovery and later, TLC, it brought more eyes to the belief system.
The 19 Kids and Counting alum appeared on the Sounds Like a Cult podcast in an episode released Tuesday.
Reality TV put more eyes on Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar’s beliefs.
According to Jill Duggar, this upped the ante for the faith-driven family. “We did not grow up with television in our home, so we didn’t grow up watching ourselves on TV,” she explained.
“But I will say that, yes, I think that these rules and things that IBLP taught were emphasized more because then you have a platform and a reputation at stake.”
Jill recalls feeling “pressure” to live by these ideals and never stray. She said, “The pressure was already there just because of the group pressure that we were in and the way that we were raised.”
She continued, “But you add a TV show to that and it definitely makes that more intense.”
Derick Dillard saw the same thing when he married Jill Duggar.
Derick Dillard joined his wife on the podcast. There, he said he saw the kind of behavior Jill Duggar described in real-time. He first noticed it when he first met the family in 2011, and it continued. Derick married Jill in 2014.
The 34-year-old attorney recalled that “the producers would want you to” push whatever ideal the group was championing at the moment.
“If one of the main themes is like, ‘We all wear this type of clothing,’ and then someone pops up not wearing that type of clothing, that would put the pressure on her dad,” he explained. “Because you’re maintaining that theme of, ‘This is how we act,’ and we don’t wanna be asked to address it.”
