Todd Chrisley reveals jailhouse confrontation with star who 'talked smack' about daughter Savannah
The former jailbird, 56, who alongside wife Julie was granted a presidential pardon by Donald Trump last month, laid into 'Varsity Blues' college admissions scam mastermind Rick Singer in a candid interview on Savannah's Unlocked podcast.
The Chrisley Knows Best stars served time for bank fraud and tax evasion - with Todd memorably crossing paths with Singer at Pensacola's Federal Prison Camp.
Referring only to Singer as the 'college admissions guy' and a 'snitch', Chrisley fumed: 'He was talking s*** about Savannah, because that's when she had already started, you know, pulling the Barbara Walters and exposing everything in the [Bureau of Prisons].
'He started talking smack. I said, "I will rip your head off and s*** down your neck if you talk about my child again." And I meant what I said.'
In January 2023 Singer was sentenced to three and a half years in prison after pleading guilty in 2019 to racketeering, money laundering and obstruction charges.
The court heard he accepted bribes totaling more than $25 million from desperate parents - including celebrities such as Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman - who wanted to get their kids into some of the country's best schools.
In August 2024 he was released to a halfway house near Los Angeles to serve the rest of his sentence.
This comes after Todd and Julie finally reunited and are now sharing the emotional details in a new interview with ABC News Studios, where they reflected on seeing each other for the first time in years.
'I was a little nervous,' Julie, 52, said about her reunion with Todd during the interview.
'Just because, you know, you think, "Oh my gosh, I've been away this long." But then, when I saw him, it was as if no time had passed.'
Todd, 56, said that the idea of reuniting felt 'weird,' because he never really considered that he and Julie were 'apart.'
'And you know for me, it's just weird, because she was never away from me,' he explained.
'Even the whole time we were apart. She was with me every second, every breath that I took.'
Todd continued: 'I mean, when I saw her, I was grateful to wrap my arms around her, but it was just more like, "I'm home."'
Julie added that there was 'laughter and tears' at their reunion, which was filmed.
Todd chimed in, 'A lot of that came after the cameras were not on.'
And after so much time apart, the first thing Todd and Julie did together was have dinner with their family.
Todd said, 'You know, we get to start over,' before saying that sleeping in his own bed again was 'heaven.'
Both of them agreed that being able to shower at the leisure, without shower shoes, was thrilling.
'It was almost like your first sexual encounter. That good,' Todd joked.
But the most emotional part of coming home was reuniting with their daughter Chloe, 12.
'You know, even though we had gotten to see each other [during visitations], it's not the same as when you're home,' Julie said.
'On our way home, she was literally watching on her phone — she was tracking where we were — to know how close I was. So I think it was just — it was a special moment,' she continued.
Todd also recently shared the thoughts running through his mind when he and his wife were sentenced.
'I remember going in and that night, I was so angry with God and that night when the lights went out, I literally cried myself to sleep because it's the first time Julie and I have ever been away from each other since we had been married,' the Chrisley patriarch told Lara Trump.
'I'd never not been in that house when my kids woke up in the morning or when they went to bed at night,' Chrisley recalled.
He was sentenced to 12 years - which was later knocked down to 10 - and served time at the Pensacola Federal Prison Camp in Florida, while wife Julie was imprisoned three states away at the Federal Medical Center Lexington in Kentucky.
'And I just said, God, why?' Chrisley continued. 'I've tried to be a loyal and faithful servant.'
'Why are you allowing this to happen? You know these things are not true,' he said.
Prosecutors pushed that the Chrisleys had used false documents and exaggerated financial statements to secure more than $30 million in loans, which they used to fund their lavish lifestyle, which was on full display on their reality TV show that went on for 10 seasons.
'And in my dream, God came to me and he said that I have planted you where I need you and when you leave, they will rise,' Chrisley recounted.
'I look back on that dream now and I now understand when he said "when you leave they will rise" because they're rising through President Trump,' the former reality TV star said. 'So I am grateful for that.'
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