Savannah Chrisley was missing her dad, Todd Chrisley, as his birthday rolled around for the third time since he and wife Julie Chrisley went to federal prison.
“Every year that passes without you home feels like another piece of my heart is missing,” the reality star and podcaster wrote Sunday on social media to mark her father’s 56th birthday. “I can’t help but think back to all the birthday adventures we’ve shared over the years…every laugh, every hug, every surprise. Celebrating you has always been one of my life’s greatest joys… one of my greatest adventures.”
The 27-year-old said the past three years have felt “frozen in time.”
“You’re three years older since you left home…and those are three years we’ve lost,” she wrote. “Three years of memories we’ll never get to make. Three years of heartbreak that time can never give back.”
Todd and Julie Chrisley, who were indicted in 2019, went from reality stars to federal convicts in June 2022 when they were found guilty of bank fraud and tax evasion. He was sentenced in November 2022 to 12 years behind bars while she got seven years. Both will serve 16 months of probation after their sentences. Julie Chrisley was resentenced in 2024 to the same amount of time behind bars, despite asking for a shorter sentence because of good behavior in prison.
Attorneys for the two appealed to President Trump for pardons in early February after Savannah — who has said that she had nothing to do with politics before her parents were imprisoned — was a speaker at the Republican National Convention last July and appeared at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland in late February. No decision on the pardons had been made as of early April, though Savannah said the packet was sent to “everyone I know to send it to” for consideration.
At CPAC, Chrisley argued that the Bureau of Prisons should be moved from the Department of Justice to the Department of Homeland Security, saying that would be “the most brilliant move, in my opinion. Because I don’t believe the DOJ should be able to charge you, house you and sentence you too.”
On her “Unlocked” podcast in February, she noted that the family was “at a stage where one of my grandparents could easily pass away while my parents are in prison, and I can’t let that happen.” She said she was fine with her parents being convicted, but “convict them on the truth.” Their case, she said, is full of inconsistencies.
She read from the executive summary of the appeal, which states that her conservative parents were “targets of a politically motivated prosecution led by former colleagues of Fulton County D.A. Fani Willis … who built their case on illegally obtained evidence and permitted false testimony from an IRS officer regarding the Chrisleys’ tax obligations while relying heavily on an immunized witness with no credibility.”
In her birthday message to her dad, Savannah Chrisley promised, “I will NEVER stop fighting for you. I will NEVER stop telling the world who you are and what you mean to us. You are so much more than the walls that surround you.”
Brother Chase Chrisley chimed in as well, writing to their father on his page, “You’ve taught me so much, how to be a man, father, husband and friend. I pray God brings us all back together soon we can celebrate together!!! You’re the rock of the family and we need our rock back!! I love you.”
Chase posted a photo of himself with his dad that was so throwback that Todd Chrisley still had brown hair.
The Chrisley family rose to reality TV fame with the debut of USA Network’s “Chrisley Knows Best,” which premiered in 2013 and then got rolling in 2014. Success there inspired a reality TV empire that included the E! spinoff “Growing Up Chrisley” and Julie’s web cooking series, “What’s Cooking With Julie Chrisley.”
“Growing Up Chrisley,” which starred Savannah and Chase, ran from 2019 to 2022. “Chrisley Knows Best” wrapped up in 2023, with episodes that aired for weeks and weeks after the parents were incarcerated.
