Jim Bob Duggar

It's been a while since the Duggar clan has been embroiled in a major public scandal.

It looked like real trouble was brewing when a car dealership owned by the family was raided by Homeland Security agents in 2019, but amazingly, almost a year later, no charges have been filed, and the incident remains shrouded in mystery.

Looking back, perhaps we should have known this day would come.

In retrospect, it seems obvious that Jill Duggar would eventually be the first of her many siblings to really rebel against Jim Bob Duggar.

For months now, the feud between Derick Dillard and Jim Bob Duggar has been creating profound tension within the Duggar family.

And of course, no one has been affected more deeply than Derick's wife and Jim Bob's daughter, Jill Duggar.

The last thing Jim Bob Duggar wants is any of his children thinking for themselves or making their own decisions.

And if they insist on doing so, he would probably prefer that that they 1. quickly become miserable and return to his way of doing things, and 2. keep the whole experiment a secret.

Several members of the Duggar family have bucked against Jim Bob's authoritarian rule in recent years.

Some rebellions were expected -- Jinger and Josiah were always bound to forge their own paths through life -- while others came as much more of a surprise.

These days, it's hard to imagine the Duggar family as anything other than fithy rich.

But when Michelle, Jim Bob, and their (at the time) 14 kids first burst onto the scene with a succession of one-off Discovery Channel specials, they were desperately poor.

Jill Duggar has finally left no doubt.

She has at last ended all debate.

Derick Dillard is resigned to the reality that nothing short of a miracle can restore his relationship with Jim Bob Duggar.

Now, he is explaining the real reason that Jim Bob won't let him or Jill anywhere near their house.

There was a time when it seemed like the strangest thing about the Duggar family was how insanely huge it is.

When Jim Bob, Michelle, and brood were first introduced to American viewers, they were a family of 16 struggling to make ends meet.

If you're a fan of the Duggar clan, then likely you're already aware of the never-ending feud between Derick Dillard and Jim Bob Duggar.

Jill's husband has been on bad terms with her father for at least the past eight months, and possibly for much longer than that.

These are strange times for the Duggar family.

Counting On Season 11 is just around the corner, which means that the family is in promotional mode, attempting to drum up ratings by focusing on the more wholesome aspects of life inside reality TV's biggest brood.

The ongoing feud between Derick Dillard and Jim Bob Duggar is unlike anything we've seen from the Counting On clan previously, and not only because JB usually discourages all displays of strong emotion.

We're sure he justifies it with some sermon about how tears are for women and hell-demons only.

Well, a new season of Counting On is almost upon us.

After a period of several months in which it looked like the show might be canceled by TLC, network execs revealed last week that the Duggars are coming back with a slate of new episodes -- and soon, too.

In June of 2019, Counting On fans were stunned by the death of Mary Duggar, mother of Jim Bob and a longtime reality TV veteran.

Mary was 78, but she was in robust health, and her death came without warning.