Todd Chrisley and Julie Chrisley’s son Grayson Chrisley admittedly struggled to accept his parents’ absence while they were incarcerated.
“It definitely took a little bit because at first I was like — obviously not in a mean way, but — you’re not my mom,” Grayson, 20, told sister Savannah Chrisley on the Tuesday, July 21, episode of her “Unlocked” podcast as he recalled her becoming his legal guardian. “I looked at it as more of, like, you’re advising me instead of telling me what to do.”
Todd, 57, and Julie, 53, were convicted in 2022 on multiple counts of tax evasion, bank and wire fraud. Despite maintaining their innocence, the Chrisley Knows Best couple were found guilty and sentenced to prison. They received presidential pardons in 2025, which ended their respective jail sentences early.
During Todd and Julie’s prison stays, Savannah, 28, received primary custody of siblings Grayson and Chloe, 13. (Todd and Julie, who are also parents of 30-year-old son Chase, adopted Chloe, the biological daughter of Todd’s son Kyle, 34, from a previous relationship.)
“When I had to get used to, like, ‘No, she’s telling me what to do,’ that was harder,” Grayson acknowledged of his dynamic with his older sister on Tuesday. “I think you got most of it right, but I feel there’s some things you expected me to adapt faster than I was going to, and I think that caused us to fight more.”
In particular, Grayson recalled that he and Savannah “argued a lot” over when to visit their parents behind bars.
“Don’t get me wrong, I wanted to see them, but also I was tired of spending every weekend,” he said. “I didn’t want to spend every weekend. I wanted to do stuff, and I feel like that’s where we would get into it a lot. It’s like, ‘I don’t want to go this weekend.’ You’re like, ‘You have to.’ … I had baseball, so the free weekends I had, we were going to visit [Mom and Dad], and I was like, ‘I just want one weekend of not doing anything.’”
For Savannah, she tried to remember their frequent sacrifices as parents when setting family travel schedules.
“In my mind, I was like, ‘Hey, they’ve sacrificed their entire lives for us. The least we can do is show up for them,’” Savannah explained. “That’s not realistic. I mean, y’all are in school all week and then on the weekends you’re visiting a prison.”
Overall, Savannah was focused on supporting Grayson and Chloe no matter what.
“I definitely looked at it from the perspective, now I can say looking back, [I thought of the situation like], ‘I’m in this with you. We’re all going through this. I’m going through this, and I’m adapting. You need to as well,’” Savannah said. “But, at the same time, you were 16 and Chloe was 10 … and it all happens differently. That’s where I kind of dropped the ball in thinking everyone was supposed to be on my time frame.”
