As the first fundamentalist family to achieve fame via their hit shows, 19 Kids & Counting and Counting On, the Duggars aren’t the only large family with 19 children. The Bates family, whose hit series Bringing Up Bates on UPtv, also has 19 children and rose to notoriety with their hit show. Even though there is some friendly competition between the two families, the Duggars and Bates have been familiar with each other for years, and at one point, became close friends. However, that appears to no longer be the case, and Jill Duggar’s husband, Derick Dillard, may have created some friction between the Bates and Duggars.
Five years ago, Dillard became a huge presence in the Duggars’ world, but he was never completely embraced by the Duggar family’s fans. Dillard has been guilty of disruptive actions in the past. For instance, back in 2017, he went on a Twitter hate rant that resulted in TLC firing him from Counting On. Faithful to him as always, his wife Jill took his side and left the show.
Dillard’s Twitter rant disgusted a bevy of people, and to show their own feelings about what Dillard had done, the Bates family unfollowed him. Both the Bates and the Duggar families are known to be conservative in their actions, but the Bates family did not want to be connected to a message that spread hate on social media. However, the Bates were not the only famous people close to Dillard to unfollow him after the incident. Jill’s sister Jessa and Jessa’s husband Ben Seewald also decided they did not want to be a part of Dillard’s rant, so the couple also unfollowed Dillard on social media.
Derick Dillard Is Reportedly The Reason Counting On Stars The Duggar Family Are No Longer Close With The Bates Family https://t.co/xhffYX74VB pic.twitter.com/hfR9ktSHMY
— Celebrity News (@celebnewsnetwrk) March 5, 2019
“The shunning begins… the Bates family have unfollowed Jill and Derick. Individual accounts unfollowing just Derick, meanwhile Ben unfollowed him, who’s next?” one fan wrote in response to the incident, according to the Celeb News Network .
“For as much as they probably agree with what he’s saying, at some point, they don’t want to be responsible for negative attention that this will invariably draw,” another fan stated in response to the incident, according to the Celeb News Network .
While the Bates family unfollowed Dillard due to his hate rant, it appears that they have not ended their friendship with the Duggars. They clearly communicate and follow each other, with the exception of Dillard, on social media, making it appear that the two families are still connected. However, while the two families are still connected, they don’t seem to be as close as they used to be since Dillard completed his rant.
