Counting the Cost

by Jill Duggar

The contract wasn’t with TLC or any other network. It was with Mad Family Inc.—a company that Mom and Pops had previously set up. In return for the eighty thousand dollars, for the next seven years—plus an unlimited number of years beyond that if the company chose—we would have to commit to making not just ourselves but our children, and any children yet to be born, available to any show that Mad Family Inc. created or participated in. We would be paid for that work as well, but at a rate that we would have to accept without negotiation. We would also have to sign an NDA which would remain active for the rest of our lives. Eighty thousand dollars was a lot of money, but these strings were tight enough to choke. Derick and I didn’t even need a discussion. There was no way either of us were going to sign. Not that we told Chad or Pops that right away. We figured it would be wise to hold off on saying no to Pops until we absolutely had to. Pops had been clear that we were not to talk about the deal with anyone else, either each other, our other siblings, or anyone outside the family. To me, at that time, the level of secrecy and control that Pops exerted on us felt normal. We had been conditioned to obey, and it wouldn’t have occurred to me to see the hypocrisy in the fact that he would warn us against stirring up contention among the brethren while also using us against one another and duping us into signing contracts.