TONTITOWN, ARKANSAS: A dark secret of the enormous Duggar family is out as one of their older daughters Jill Duggar Dillard acknowledged on the Amazon docuseries ‘Shiny, Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets’ that she has not been paid for giving birth on the national television in her show ‘Counting On’. however, non-payment for her work is allegedly not the only secret in which the large family of 19 children are embroiled in. The family patriarch Jim Bob Duggar and his wife Michelle Duggar reportedly have another secret under their sleeves.
The Duggars came to the spotlight when their show ‘17 Kids and Counting’ premiered on TLC in 2008 which chronicled the lives of the couple and their ever-growing brood of 17 children. When the show was finally canceled in 2015, the brood grew into a staggering number of 19 children. However, housing such a large family is a task in itself, which Jim Bob apparently did a fine job within the first place. As the show started, it chronicled the move of the family to their own home which they were apparently building themselves. However, according to some insiders, “They did not build their home by themselves.” Instead, TLC and Discovery Health channel gave them fat cheques to build their home.
How much is the Duggar’s home worth?
Jim Bob and Michelle once revealed during the episodes that the home was built from a kit that included various pieces which were assembled to construct the home. In fact, there were some extra I-beams as the original ones were defective, as per The Things. The house sits on a 20-acre land consisting of a 7,000-square-foot area. As per Showbiz Cheatsheet, the kit was estimated to be $82,000. It has a master suite for the parents and dormitory-style spaces for the boys and girls respectively.
'They are pimping out their family for material things'
While the show was on-air many viewers doubted that the home was at least funded by the channel despite Jim Bob not confirming the claims. However, an insider played the part of a whistleblower to let the family secret outside. The insider by the name of Alice seems to have commented in length about the Duggars’ tendency of “pimping out their family for material things.” While it has not been confirmed, the excerpt of the post from 2007 can be found on Reddit.
The post reads, “They did not build their home by themselves. They hired it done.” The source also claimed that Discovery Health and TLC paid for the cost, “The Discovery Health Channel and the TLC channel wrote them a check for over $200,000. for the to build the house.”
Not only was the house given to them. Even the belongings were gifted to the Duggars. The post continues, “Everything inside the house was given to them except the kitchen,” saying that the kitchen is their own, “They did buy that themselves.” However, she continued, “The rest is all free. Mary and Josh was on the phone day and night asking for donations from soup to Computers.”
Not only the necessary goods, but the luxury goods they enjoyed also came from donations. She said, “They also received a Baby Grand Piano from Campbell Soup Co. The trip to California was also provided by the TV Stations. It was mapped out. Mile for Mile.”
‘Alice’ repeated again, “They did not spend a penny of their money. All the groceries and gas and lodging and clothing was paid for in advance.” She also shared her opinion that the Duggars should have been stopped, “I think that is time the the Duggar’s are stopped. They are pimping out their family for material things to keep them fed and clothed. If they cannot feed and clothe their children, don’t have them.”
What is the Duggar family’s net worth?
The Duggars started their TLC journey with ‘17 Kids and Counting’ in 2008 which later upgraded to ‘19 Kids and Counting’. According to Celebrity Net Worth, they are estimated to be worth $3.5 million. They appeared in the show's ten seasons comprising 229 episodes.
