Jill Duggar Dillard Is Raising Her Children out of the Spotlight
Jill revealed that her marriage was initially strained by the pressures of reality TV.
May 24 2024, Updated 11:19 a.m. ET
Those who have followed Jill (Duggar) Dillard since 19 Kids and Counting and its spinoff series, Counting On, know a lot about the former TV star's familial life — but we're not talking about the Duggars. No, we're talking about her life with her husband and their kids.
Unlike her own upbringing in the spotlight, Jill decided to raise her and Derick's kids out of the public eye. They occasionally appear on Jill's social media accounts, but overall, they're getting to grow up in private.
Below, we take a look at Jill's husband and children, as well as the heartbreaking news of their pregnancy losses in 2021 and 2024.
Who are Jill Duggar's kids?
Jill and her husband, Derick, share three kids together. The couple welcomed their first son, Israel David, on April 6, 2015. They didn't want TV cameras in the delivery room, but a compromise was reached — Jill and Derick recorded their own videos so Counting On could feature the special moment.
On July 8, 2017, Jill gave birth to her and Derick's second son, Samuel Scott. His birth was also featured in an episode of Counting On. But unfortunately, on Oct. 11, 2021, the pair revealed they had lost their third child, River Bliss, to a miscarriage.
Nearly a year later, on July 7, 2022, Jill and Derick announced the birth of their third son, Frederick Michael.
"'Freddy' Frederick Michael Dillard is here! He was born 7/7/2022 at 5:16pm weighing 7lbs. 6oz. and is 20 inches long," they wrote in a Dillard family blog post. "Frederick was set to arrive later in July, but he decided he wanted to come a little early... so we had our planned C-section a bit before originally planned."
Then, sadly, on April 13, 2024, Jill and Derick shared that they had been expecting another baby — a daughter named Isla Marie — but that baby Isla had died in utero at 4 months.
"It is with heavy hearts that we announce the stillbirth of our beautiful baby girl, Isla Marie Dillard. Jill was 4 months pregnant (due in August) when we found out that our baby died in utero," the couple's shared post read. "From the moment we found out we were pregnant, we couldn’t wait to meet our baby. Isla was much loved from the start, and her 3 big brothers were so excited to introduce her to their world. We appreciate your prayers as we continue to grieve and heal from the loss of our little Isla Marie."
A few weeks after sharing the saddening news, Jill took to Instagram to share baby bump photos the couple was "so excited to share, but didn’t get to before she was gone."
Jill Duggar and her husband, Derick, have been married since 2014.
Jill and Derick started dating after he became close with her father, Jim Bob Duggar. The pair got married just one year later, in June 2014. Although their realtionship seemed strong, Jill spoke with People in September 2023, and revealed that her family's reality shows put a strain on her and Derick's marriage.
"It caused a lot of frustration in our marriage," Jill told People. "Especially early on, where he would feel a certain way about filming something. I'd be like, 'I hear you, I feel you, I also don't want to do whatever it is they're asking us to do either. But we have to.'"
Eventually, she and Derick began fighting over the show: "It definitely got between us," Jill said.
The couple even claimed that Jill's father tried to drive a wedge between them: "Whenever we were at odds with what her dad thought we should be doing with filming, he would say things that would be very damaging," Derick alleged.
Derick continued, "He would weaponize the relationship and say, 'Is this you Jill, or is this you, Derek? Are you leading your wife astray and doing things that are not supportive of marriage?' And I think that was a red flag."