For nearly 30 years, Todd and Julie Chrisley have been by each other’s side through all of life’s challenges. But in January 2023, the “Chrisley Knows Best” stars’ marriage was tested when they were forced to separate as they began their respective prison sentences for tax evasion and fraud charges.
In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, Todd and Julie — who are currently promoting Lifetime’s new docuseries, “The Chrisleys: Back to Reality,” alongside their family — spoke about the challenges they faced when it came to maintaining a healthy marriage and strong bond.
“Todd and I didn’t speak for 28 months and I was lucky and so blessed to be able to see my children and they were able to visit and we were able to talk, but that wasn’t the case for Todd and I,” Julie explained. “We had an email that’s very antiquated and we got messages every two, three days. So it was almost impossible to even keep a conversation going.”
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“For me, I never felt, and this is the weirdest way of saying this, but I was never in my mind away from her,” Todd said of being separated from his wife of nearly 30 years. “She stayed in my mind all day long and all night. I thought about her every waking second.”
“I used to say in my emails, I thank God for my mind, for my memory and for all the memories that we’ve created because I was around men who were being diagnosed with dementia, Alzheimer’s, things like that. And I used to say, ‘God, thank you for my mind.’ And I survived on my memories that Julie and I have made for 30 years.”
“I survived all my times of seeing my children laugh and when they were crying and me telling them ‘It’s going to be OK’… And then all of a sudden we’ve moved on to something much bigger. So for me, it was not an option of is this marriage going to last? It was, how do we pick up and start rebuilding from where we are right now?”
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The Chrisleys, who rose to fame with their hit reality show “Chrisley Knows Best,” were convicted in 2022 of federal bank fraud and tax evasion. Todd and Julie, who have maintained their innocence, were sentenced to 12 and seven years, respectively, and reported to prison on Jan. 17, 2023.
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In May, the couple were released from federal prison after they received pardons from President Trump.
“It’s a terrible thing, but it’s a great thing, because your parents are going to be free and clean, and I hope we can do it by tomorrow. Is that OK? We’ll try getting it done tomorrow,” Trump told the Chrisleys’ children, Savannah and Chase, in a phone call from the Oval Office that was posted on the X account of a White House aide. The post was captioned in part, “Trump Knows Best!”
Todd recalled waking up in prison on May 28, expecting to go about his daily routine. He never expected to walk out a free man.
“Listen, I’ve said again on our [‘Chrisley Confessions 2.0’] podcast that I’ve had so many Joseph moments to happen in my life from the time this whole thing started,” he said. “And so you go to bed on May the 27th, and you know that on the 28th you’re going to get up and do the same thing over and over and over again. That’s not the way my life happened.”
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“My Joseph moment was getting up that morning and then that afternoon being told, you’ve been pardoned, we’ve got to get you out of here,” he continued. “That’s how quickly your life can change. When I spoke with President Trump via FaceTime, his first thing was, ‘Well, wow, you look great.’ And I was like, ‘Well, thank you.’ But he was very kind and very gracious.”
Since returning home, both Todd and Julie have been navigating the transition as well as possible.
“There’s definitely been a transition period, a period of just, I think you just kind of pinch yourself to say, ‘This is really happening,’” Julie explained. “And when you are incarcerated, when you’re in prison, you have this protective shell because you have to. It is just self-preservation of just getting through each day. And so I think it takes time to let your guard down and to say, ‘OK, this has really happened. I’m really home and I can really continue living.’ So I’m just grateful for every day.”
“I think for me, Julie and I have talked about it. Julie had reconciled that she was going to do this many months on her sentence or this many years, whatever it was. For me, I never believed that for me. Every day I was getting up, getting dressed, I was leaving,” said Todd.
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“I got up and I got dressed and I put my best foot forward,” he continued. “I would go call my daughter and say, OK, what’s the plans for the day? What do you have going on today? Who are you talking to? What’s your next steps? And so we always had a plan. And I think through my communication with Savannah, that helped to keep me focused and motivated because we had more communication than what Julie was able to have with them… which is so bizarre that women get less in the Bureau of Prisons and in the prison system as a whole than what men do. But I think that through my constant communication with Savannah and her coming to see me and giving me the blow by blows of what’s happening and what she hopes to see happen next, that continued to fuel me with hope. And that’s what I hope that our family will be able to do to the 155,000 that we’ve left behind, is to instill hope in them to let them know that there is a brighter tomorrow.”
WATCH: TODD CHRISLEY SHARES PRESIDENT TRUMP’S SURPRISING FIRST REMARK AFTER PRISON PARDON
In July, Todd and Julie opened up about life in prison and explained why life on the outside can sometimes be more difficult.
“I’ve actually talked to a few of the women that I was in prison with that they’re already home,” Julie, 52, began to explain during the July 23 episode of their “Chrisley Confessions 2.0” podcast.
“We all have this general consensus that — it’s kind of weird to even say it.”
Todd, 56, added, “No, it’s not weird. Life is rougher than prison life.”
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“It is so horrific, the conditions that you’re there for, but that’s from a physical standpoint,” he explained. “But from an emotional and psychological standpoint, it is harder dealing with day to day.”
“The Chrisleys: Back to Reality” will premiere as a two-night event on Lifetime Sept. 1 and 2 at 8/7c. The remaining episodes will air Tuesdays beginning on Sept. 9 with the finale on Sept. 16.
