Savannah Chrisley Was 'Left with 3 Mortgages' When Parents Went to Prison, Says She 'Struggled' Financially
"I know what it feels like to not know how you’re going to pay your bills that month," Savannah said on her podcast, 'Unlocked'
Savannah Chrisley says there’s a misconception about her finances among fans.
On the Sept. 10 episode of her podcast, Unlocked, Chrisley, 27, opened up about the hardships she’s faced in the aftermath of her parents’ prison sentences.
“People comment and will say, like, ‘Oh, I feel so sorry for you, living off of mom and daddy’s stolen money,’” she told a group of friends on the episode. “And ‘You’re rich, it’s easy, stop trying to act like it’s so hard.’”
Savannah’s father, Todd, 55, was sentenced to 12 years in prison and 16 months probation, while her mother, Julie, 51, was sentenced to seven years in prison and 16 months probation in November 2022, after the couple received a guilty verdict for bank fraud and tax evasion in June of that year.
Related: Savannah Chrisley Recalls How She 'Couldn't Even Function' During Parents' Trial: 'I Was Shocked'
“I struggled," Savannah continued. “Like, I know what it feels like to not know how you’re going to pay your bills that month. ‘Cause I was left with three mortgages, and the lawyers, and kids.”
Savannah also became the guardian of two children: her brother Grayson Chrisley, 17, and Chloe Chrisley, 11. Chloe is the daughter of Kyle Chrisley, Todd's second child with his ex-wife, Teresa Terry, and had been under the care of Todd and Julie.
The family rose to fame on USA Network's Chrisley Knows Best, and from 2019 to 2022, Savannah and her brother Chase starred on the spinoff Growing Up Chrisley.
While Savannah previously said a new reality series about the Chrisleys is in the works, she noted on her podcast that the lack of income from her TV projects contributed to her financial woes. And she’d begun a career in real estate, but as a friend pointed out, the work was time-consuming.
“I was just getting into real estate, and, like, your first year, you’re pretty much, you know, like, working for every deal that you get,” Savannah said. “And that’s the thing, it’s like, people have this misconception that I’m sitting on millions of dollars and I’m like, ‘If you know where it is, please walk me to it. I would love to see it.’”
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“But I know what it’s like to struggle. I used to not go have to go to the grocery store and look at — I would just buy whatever,” she continued. “I was at a point to where I had to tell the kids no to stuff. And I put their needs before mine. I don’t know how I did it, but somehow I was able to do it.”
Savannah also claimed that the government “fought for” the 3 percent commission she intended to take from selling her parents’ house as a licensed real estate agent until her lawyer negotiated the amount down to a percent and a half.
“They would not allow me to sell the house if they didn’t get the money,” she said.
In the previous episode of Unlocked, Savannah shared how she felt immediately after learning of her parents’ guilty verdict.
"I didn't cry the whole way home," she recalled in the Sept. 3 episode. "I don't even remember getting home."
"When I got home, I literally walked in the door and collapsed," she went on, noting she "could not calm down" and eventually "took something to, like, calm me down."
"I couldn't even function," she added.
New episodes of the Unlocked with Savannah Chrisley podcast drop every Tuesday.
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