Jill Duggar Dillard, known for her role as part of a controversial reality TV family, and her husband, Derick Dillard, are mourning the loss of their fourth child after daughter Isla Marie Dillard was delivered stillborn.
The couple addressed their heartache in a joint post on Instagram on Saturday, sharing a somber photo of the parents holding several small items intended for their newborn.
“It is with heavy hearts that we announce the stillbirth of our beautiful baby girl, Isla Marie Dillard,” the message began. “Jill was 4 months pregnant (due in August) when we found out that our baby died in utero.”
“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,” the post said, referring to sons Israel David, 9, Samuel Scott, 6, and Frederick “Freddy” Michael, 21 months.
Sending gratitude to all who offered their condolences, the post ended, “We appreciate your prayers as we continue to grieve and heal from the loss of our little Isla Marie.”
The Dillards, who wed in 2014, had not announced they were expecting before sharing news of their pregnancy loss.
Dillard is the second eldest daughter of Michelle and Bob Duggar, whose family rose to fame in 2008 with the TLC series “19 Kids and Counting.”
Raising the children as part of the fundamentalist Christian sect the Institute in Basic Life Principles, family patriarch Jim Bob Duggar preached the power of female subservience, modest dressing, big families and independent education.
The family’s pious image came crashing down in 2015 when son Josh Duggar admitted to molesting Dillard, three other sisters and the family babysitter.
Dillard wrote about her ultra-conservative upbringing in her 2023 memoir, “Counting the Cost,” which she co-wrote with her husband.
After the book was published, Dillard found herself at odds with her father.
Months after “Counting the Cost” was released, she told NBC’s “Today,” “My relationship with my dad got pretty toxic to the point where we had to cut off individual contact with him.
“It got to the point where Derick was there to step in and kind of say, ‘Hey, don’t reach out to my wife individually or else I’ll have to file a protective order,’ just because it was so hard for me to handle.”