Counting the Cost

James Robert “Jim Bob” and Michelle Duggar (née Ruark) are the parents of the Duggar family. Michelle was born in 1966 in Ohio. She became a Christian when she was in high school and met Jim Bob shortly after. They got engaged in 1983. Michelle graduated from high school in 1984 and married Jim Bob on July 21, 1984, when she was 17 and he was 19. She chose to homeschool all 19 of her children despite only having a high school diploma. Jim Bob was born in 1965 in Arkansas and attended a Baptist school. He began a political career in 1998, successfully running for a seat in the Arkansas House of Representatives. In 2002 and 2021 he made unsuccessful bids for a seat in the United States Senate. It was his 2002 Senate campaign that first catapulted the Duggar family into the public eye, resulting in their appearance in the documentary 14 Children and Pregnant Again! by Discovery Health. After appearing in several one-off documentaries, the Duggars became the stars of TLC’s 17 Kids and Counting (later 18 and 19 Kids). 

In Counting the Cost, Jim Bob believes the family’s reality show is a “window of opportunity” for them to “show people what a Christian family can look like” (51). As the show also brings great financial success to the Duggars, Jim Bob becomes heavily invested in its continuation at all costs. He frequently uses the religious control he maintains over his family to pressure his wife and children into sacrificing their privacy and autonomy. He also lies to Jill about the financial compensation she should have received for her work on the show. He manipulates Jill into unwittingly signing a contract, commits tax fraud in her name, and expects her to defer to his decisions and judgment even when she is a married adult with her own children. Though Michelle and Jill maintain a fairly conflict-free relationship, Jim Bob and Jill go through several periods where they do not contact one another because of the breakdown of their relationship. Jim Bob apologizes for some of his wrongdoings, but Jill often feels his apologies are hollow and insincere. Jill has not managed to resolve all of her problems with her father by the end of her memoir, but she feels hopeful about the future.

Derick Dillard is Jill’s husband. He was born in 1989 in Rogers, Arkansas. He was raised in a Baptist family and was baptized at the age of nine. Unlike the Duggar kids, Derick attended public schools. When he graduated in 2007, he attended Ohio State University, where he completed a degree in accounting with a minor in economics. From 2012 until early 2014, Derick worked as a missionary in Nepal. During this time, he became prayer partners with Jim Bob Duggar. They would call each other several times a week to discuss Derick’s work. Jim Bob introduced Jill to Derick over the phone in March of 2013 and encouraged them to get to know one another. In November of the same year, Jill and Jim Bob flew to Nepal to meet Derick in person, accompanied by a film crew to shoot their first meeting. Jill and Derick began an official courtship during this trip, chaperoned by Jim Bob. In January of 2014, Derick completed his mission and returned home to Arkansas. The couple became engaged in March and were married in June of 2014, seven months after meeting in person for the first time. 

Derick is a constant source of support for Jill. She is repeatedly grateful to him for his ability to stand up for her, though at first she is deeply anxious about going against her father. Derick is relatively cavalier about questioning Jim Bob’s authority. When Derick and Jill realize Jim Bob is taking financial advantage of them and the other Duggar children, the tensions grow. Derick supports Jill as she begins therapy, and Jill presents him as a good Christian husband who always defends his family. Derick also lets Jill decide for herself if she wants to wear pants or get her nose pierced instead of making the decision for her. Despite his patient and sympathetic portrayal in Counting the Cost, Derick holds many of the same fundamentalist Christian views as Jim Bob and often posts bigoted opinions on his Twitter account. This has earned him criticism in the past.

Josh Duggar was born in Tontitown, Arkansas, in 1988. He is the oldest Duggar child. Josh, like all of his siblings, was homeschooled and taught to follow the fundamentalist principles of IBLP. He received a GED when he was 16 and never completed any higher education. Josh became involved in conservative politics as a teenager, during Jim Bob’s first unsuccessful bid for Senate in 2002. He went on to work as a part-time political consultant starting in 2007 and has been part of political lobby groups such as Family Research Council (FRC) Action. 

In 2002, at the age of 14, Josh confessed to his parents that, starting at the age of 12, he had molested four of his younger sisters while they were both awake and asleep as well as a fifth girl outside the family. Josh’s confession was never reported to the police, and he never received any kind of therapy for his behavior. Instead, Jim Bob claimed Josh was sent to a Christian-run counseling program involving physical labor, though Michelle later clarified he was instead helping Jim Bob’s friend remodel a building. Josh spent three months away from the family, and when he returned, they did not discuss the matter further. In 2006, information about Josh’s sexual abuse was revealed and the Duggar family was investigated. The findings of this investigation were later leaked to the press in 2015. In 2021, Josh was arrested and charged with receiving and possessing child pornography. He pleaded not guilty but was convicted and sentenced to 12.5 years in prison.

Jill has 18 siblings: Josh, Jana, John-David, Jessa, Jinger, Joseph, Josiah, Joy-Anna, Jedidiah, Jeremiah, Jason, James, Justin, Jackson, Johanna, Jennifer, Jordan, and Josie. As a child, most of Jill’s points of social contact were her siblings. She had no friends outside of her family; other than her parents, her siblings were her only support system. As one of the older children, Jill helped to raise many of her younger siblings, including Joy-Anna, James, and Jennifer, who were her official “buddies” in their mother’s “buddy system.” Jill loves her siblings immensely and has many fond memories of her childhood. Josh sexually abused Jill and three of her sisters. Though Jill does not discuss the abuse in detail, she mentions that she and her sisters supported each other through their trauma. Unlike most of her siblings, she has distanced herself from the family. Other than Jinger Duggar, all other Duggar children are still involved with the family and have not publicly acknowledged any kind of separation. As of 2023, three of the Duggar children are still minors. Jill has three sons: Israel, Samuel, and Freddy.