How Much Was Jill Duggar Really Paid For Her Decade-Long TV Career?

Since "19 Kids and Counting" was canceled in 2015, several of the Duggar children have used their platforms to challenge the happy-go-lucky narrative cultivated by the hit reality show. Jill Duggar Dillard has been the most outspoken, often finding herself publicly at odds with her parents. Their relationship has been irreparably damaged as a result. 

While Jill and her husband, Derick Dillard, have taken to their family's YouTube channel to discuss how their views differ from the rest of the Duggars, they also opened up about the behind-the-scenes reality of the TLC family in the Amazon Prime Video docuseries "Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets" and Jill's tell-all memoir, "Counting the Cost."

One of these reality checks concerns money, as the Arkansas native has revealed the truth about how much she was paid for her time on "19 Kids and Counting" and "Jill and Jessa: Counting On." Turns out, the Duggar parents withheld money from Jill and her siblings while the shows were airing, though the Dillards eventually negotiated a payout.

In her memoir, "Counting the Cost," Jill Duggar Dillard estimates that the Duggar family made about $8 million from their TLC show, earnings that she and her siblings were initially excluded from. Although they benefited from their parents' monetary gains in some ways, as the series paid for them to move into a more accommodating house, the kids were not individually compensated for appearing on the show, even as adults.

"For seven and a half years of my adult life, I was never paid," Dillard shared in the Amazon Prime Video docuseries "Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets," (via Today). On the show, the couple also explained how Jim Bob Duggar, the family patriarch, received and controlled the show's earnings. Jill added, "They had their negotiations, they had their business meeting, it just wasn't with us."

As a result, the Dillards struggled to support themselves financially, with court documents obtained by The Sun detailing how they sometimes relied on neighbor donations and food banks to feed their family. It wasn't until after Jill had quit that series that she was finally able to receive some of the payment she was owed.

For a long time, Jill Duggar Dillard and her siblings were excluded from the money earned from their family's TLC shows, but she and her husband were eventually able to receive some compensation. Derick Dillard explained in a YouTube video, "Once we got the attorney involved, we were able to recover a portion of what Jill should have been paid," (via The U.S. Sun).

Jill confirmed in an interview with People that she and her adult siblings were originally offered checks of $80,000 each by Jim Bob Duggar, an offer that the Dillards turned down after finally obtaining a copy of the original contracts that were signed, and in consideration of how much their family earned from the show. Jill also asserted that she was coerced into signing the contract. 

This meant the reality star was obligated to appear in the show and its spinoff without being compensated properly for her work. Eventually, after walking away from it, Jill and Derick were able to negotiate a payout of $175,000 from her father. "It probably ended up being a little more than minimum wage," Derick shared in the couple's YouTube video. "But we were able to recover at least something."