All of the Chrisley children have bears voiced by their mother Julie Chrisley.
Savannah Chrisley, 27, who has custody of her younger brother, Grayson, 18, and sister, Chloe, 11, said Tuesday on her “Unlocked” podcast that her mother originally recorded prayers on a Build-a-Bear she gave to Chloe before she went to prison in January 2023 because she and Chloe always said their prayers together every night.
“And then Grayson had tears in his eyes and he was like, 'But I want one, too,'” Savannah said. “And Build-a-Bear closed in like 30 minutes, and she, like, ran to Build-a-Bear and made two for him, made one for me, made one for Chase, and, like, we all still have it.”
Savannah said she still plays the bear recording, “but the kids don't. Chloe, someone played it the other day and Chloe freaked out and said, 'Don't play it! Don't play it!' because she hadn't heard it at all.”
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Savannah Chrisley, right, said her mother, Julie, center, gave her children Build-a-Bears with personal messages before she went to prison. (Getty Images)
Chloe is Savannah's niece, but Todd and Julie adopted her due to her estranged brother Kyle's substance abuse and troubles with the law.
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“From an outsider's perspective looking in, I can't imagine what it was like to receive them, but seeing all of you for the first time play them for yourselves and hear them was so heartbreaking,” Savannah's friend Tyler Bishop said on the podcast.
Julie and Todd Chrisley, best known for their reality show “Chrisley Knows Best,” were sentenced to a total of 19 years in prison in November 2022 on fraud and tax evasion charges.
Todd was originally sentenced Julie was sentenced to 12 years in prison, but had two years of her sentence reduced. Julie was sentenced to seven years in prison after being initially charged in August 2019 on bank fraud and tax evasion charges. Her sentence was reduced to 14 months in September 2023.
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In June, an appeals court overturned her sentence based solely on a legal error in the way the trial judge had calculated her sentence. She will be resentenced later this month.
Friend and podcast producer Erin Dugan recalled going to lunch with Savannah after her parents turned themselves in to federal prison.
Savannah Chrisley has custody of her younger brother and sister, Grayson and Chloe, while her parents are in prison. (Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
“It was like the whole weight of the world was on your shoulders, and we went to lunch, had a couple glasses of wine, like I had already accepted that I wasn't going to go back to work, that this lunch was going to last as long as it needed to, and it was a long lunch, and when we got back here, you just completely broke down,” Dugan said. “But most people in that situation would never be able to handle it the way you do and you break down way more than that. I was glad that you were comfortable crying, just crying.”
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“Erin was like, 'Cry, cry, get it out!' And I was like, 'Trust me, I've gotten to this point,'” Savannah laughed.
Savannah Chrisley with her parents in 2015 (Rick Diamond/Getty Images for the “For Love and Acceptance” concert)
“I think it's such a buildup of energy that you don't really have anywhere to go, so I think of that as a positive thing when you get to that point, because I think that needs to get out,” she said.
Savannah's friend Holly Waldrup added that there was “so much denial” about Julie and Todd going to prison after their sentencing.
“Nobody accepted the fact that they were leaving until they got there,” he said.
Julie Chrisley gave each child a bear. (Tommy Garcia/USA Network/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images)
Savannah added that she has since spoken to her mother about the “impossible situation” and that Julie told her she wished she had prepared more before turning herself in, “because they didn't do anything to prepare for leaving, like packing up the kids' stuff, moving them, packing their stuff.”
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She said she and her ex-fiancé, Nick Kerdiles, who died later that year in a motorcycle accident, packed everything up themselves after her parents went to prison.
