Last week, Josh Duggar was arrested and accused of possessing child pornography. Following his arrest, Josh appeared in court where he pleaded not guilty to two charges bought against him—one count of receipt of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography.

In the wake of Josh's arrest, Derick Dillard, who is married to Jill Duggar, spoke out about the toxic conditions of both TLC reality shows, 19 Kids & Counting and Jill & Jessa: Counting On, that followed the Duggar family over the years. Derick accused family patriarch Jim Bob Duggar and his wife, Michelle Duggar, of withholding money made from the show from their kids, as well as using "scare tactics" to "keep them compliant," in various Twitter interactions over the past few days.

Derick replied to one Twitter user named Tamara who asked him: "If you cancel one show cancel all. Why should Jessa and Ben or John and Abbie suffer? That's my point Josh and his parents have nothing to do with the other kids. Leave their show alone. Josh was already removed from the original show. Counting on doesn't even talk about him." He informed Tamara that, while the name of the show changed, not much was altered behind the scenes. This means that Jim Bob and Michelle remain in control of the program even though they are no longer the stars. "It’s the parents’ show, you know that, right?" he wrote.

Another user then joined the conversation, asking if Jill & Jessa: Counting On was simply TLC's attempt to rebrand the Duggar family following Josh's 2015 molestation scandal. "Yes, that’s exactly what they called it — a rebranding," Derick answered. "Same business structure as 19K&C (I.e., one person makes the decisions for all and one person got paid) but it would be 'rebranded' to make people think it was different. We pushed back often, and we were threatened often."

Derick said the fallout of Josh's 2015 scandal was "not handled well" by TLC. "The public was deceived. Their plan worked. And we were told to keep filming and keep our mouths shut. We called their bluff and left," he said of his and Jill's decision to leave the show.

Jill has previously discussed her estrangement from her parents and some of her siblings. “We’re not on the best terms with some of my family,” she shared last year. “We’ve had some disagreements and stuff, but we’re working towards healing definitely and restoration, but we’re having to kind of just take some time and heal and just doing what’s best for our family right now and just working through it, I guess.”

Derick and Jill released a statement following Josh's recent arrest. "We just found out this information yesterday," they wrote. "It is very sad."

Photo: Getty

Dana McKay

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