Todd and Julie Chrisley’s son reveals : ‘Hardest decision I’ve ever made’
Grayson, Savannah, Nanny Faye, and Chase Chrisley reflect on saying goodbye to their parents, with Chase calling it “one of the worst days of my life.
The sentencing of Todd and Julie Chrisley to 12 and 7 years in federal prison, respectively, for bank fraud and tax evasion took a huge toll on the whole Chrisley family. Their youngest son, Grayson, can still recall the day his parents reported to their separate facilities — and the agonizing decision of who to accompany.
“I had to pick which one I was going to go with. Yeah, it was the hardest decision I’ve ever made,” he recalled on Lifetime’s new series The Chrisleys: Back to Reality, which provides the first up-close glimpse of the first family of reality TV after several years of scandal and hardship.
On the fourth episode, which premiered on Sept. 2, Grayson explained that “having to pick which one — because you think that the other one might think you love the other one more — [was] the hardest decision I’ve ever made. Who do I go with? What do I do?
Grayson, who’s now 19 but began his tenure as a reality star on Chrisley Knows Best at only 7 years old, eventually revealed he “picked my dad, because he was further.”
Todd and Julie Chrisley were first indicted in August 2019 and denied all charges, which included conspiracy to commit bank fraud, bank fraud, conspiracy to defraud the United States, tax fraud, wire fraud, and obstruction of justice. They were eventually convicted in June 2022, and sentenced that November.
While Julie was sent to the Federal Medical Center in Lexington, Ky., just under a four-hour drive from the Chrisley family home in Tennessee, Todd was sent to the Federal Prison Camp in Pensacola, Fla.
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Savannah characterized “the days leading up to mom and dad going to prison” as “a lot.” She explained that the family members — which also includes Todd and Julie’s other son, Chase; Kyle and Lindsie, Todd’s children from a previous marriage; and Chloe, Kyle’s daughter whom Todd and Julie adopted in 2016 — “were all just trying to spend as much time with each other as humanly possible.”
Chase, whose acrimonious relationship with Savannah has introduced yet another strain on the family dynamic explored in Back to Reality, also remembered the day his parents reported to prison as a solemn one. “Me and my grandparents drove my mom to her facility,” he recalled. “I just remember giving my mom a hug, and we were all crying, and I just had to watch her walk in those gates.”
“I think I was kind of like, ‘F— life at this point.’ That was one of the worst days of my life, for sure,” he said.
Reminding viewers of the optimistic part she often played on Chrisley Knows Best, Nanny Faye, Todd’s mother, recalled the final days with Todd and Julie with a mix of positive and negative emotions.
“Our last Christmas at home was a sad day, and a happy day. We knew that the possibility of us being together again for a while was almost slim to none, but we had a great dinner. We all shared our Christmas, and we tried to be as happy as we possibly could, knowing that the time was growing near. But I always say, ‘Have faith and hope, we don’t know what tomorrow holds,” she shared.
Nanny Faye was right — Todd and Julie only served two-and-a-half years apiece out of the combined 19 years they were sentenced to. In May, after years of Savannah’s tireless lobbying, President Donald Trump granted Todd and Julie Chrisley pardons, freeing them from prison.
New episodes of The Chrisleys: Back to Reality air Mondays and Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Lifetime through Sept. 16.
