Jill Duggar: Jim Bob’s Parents Think He’s a Freak For Having So Many Kids!

Jim and Michelle Duggar built a multi-million dollar business empire on their bizarre belief that Christians are morally obligated to have as many children as physically possible.

With such a dubious foundation, it’s no surprise that the whole house of cards eventually came crashing down.

But even the Duggars harshest critics couldn’t have imagined a decade ago that the family’s squeaky clean public image would go up in flames so spectacularly.

The new Amazon Prime Video documentary Shiny Happy People explores this downfall and provides viewers with an in-depth look at the organization that shaped Jim Bob’s worldview — the Institute for Basic Life Principles.

The film drives home the point that neither Jim Bob or Michelle grew up in the sort of hyper-authoritarian environment that they would later force on their children.

And no one is more aware of the injustice of the situation than Jill Duggar.

Jill and husband Derick Dillard agreed to be interviewed for the documentary, and the couple did not pull any punches!

At one point in the film, Jill alleges that her parents forced her to giver birth on camera and never even paid her for doing so.

And in one of the series’ most shocking moments, Jill recalls being coerced into defending Josh Duggar in a TV interview — downplaying the sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of her eldest brother, all for the sake of her family’s reputation,

Much has been made of Jill’s courage in condemning her parents’ abusive parenting methods, which are all the more shocking for the fact that both Jim Bob and Michelle are products of stable, relatively “normal” households.

“My grandparents, neither one on either side, agreed with my parents having a million kids,” Jill says in the series.

“They were concerned about my mom’s health and they would always say, ‘Oh, is this your last one?’”

Yes, Jill wants viewers to understand that Jim Bob’s strange ideas about procreation and child-rearing didn’t come from his parents — they came from IBLP founder Bill Gothard, who has himself been accused of sexual assault and harassment.

In a recent interview, Shiny Happy People producer Cori Shepherd praised Jill and her cousin Amy for having the courage to get in front of the camera and share their stories with the world.

“Everybody has a voice. This is amplifying the voices, giving them the platform. That’s what I thought was important,” Shepherd told People magazine.

“We made [that intention] clear” to Jill and Amy throughout the filming process, Shepherd notes.

“That’s what we were here for. They could talk about what they were comfortable speaking about,” she continues.

“We weren’t going to be super invasive and really work hard on trauma-informed interviewing so that we weren’t at any point being hurtful to people who had already been through so much.”

Jill cut ties with her parents years ago, but she rarely speaks publicly about her difficult upbringing.

It seems, however, that that’s about to change.

Jill has a new memoir coming out, and it promises to expose even more of the corruption and abuse within her parents’ empire.

And you can be sure Jim Bob is dreading the publication date already!

Jill Duggar: Jim Bob’s Parents Think He’s a Freak For Having So Many Kids! was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip.