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According to Savannah Chrisley, Chrisley Knows Best star Todd Chrisley -- currently in prison for fraud along with wife Julie-- was reluctant for his son Kyle's mental health and addiction struggles to be out there for everyone to see.
Savannah Chrisley continues to open up about her family's lives while her parents are behind bars for tax and bank fraud. Now, she's saying her father Todd actually turned down reality television at first.
Chrisley Knows Best, their popular USA reality show, nearly didn't happen at all, according to Savannah on The Adversity Advantage Podcast. She said his concerns stemmed back to his eldest son Kyle, her half-brother, from his first marriage.
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View Story"He struggles with, you know, mental health, drugs, you know, all of it," said Savannah. "And my dad was like, I'm not putting that on TV for everyone to see."
According to Savannah, there's this pressure in the South to display a "perfect" family picture at all times, which also weighed into Todd's hesitation. Obviously, he turned around on his stance, setting the stage for the family's long-running series.
Chrisley Knows Best ran from March 2014 to March 2023, and may have continued longer had Todd and wife Julie not been found guilty of tax and bank fraud and been sentenced to prison. Both are still behind bars.
The couple have maintained their innocence throughout and are currently awaiting an appeal hearing, which was recently pushed back to April 2024, per TV Insider.
While Kyle was not a regular member of the show's cast, he did make sporadic appearances on the show due to the aforementioned struggle with addiction, but his daughter Chloe was a regular fixture, as Todd and Julie were raising her.
Following their incarceration, Savannah took custody of Chloe, as well as her younger brother Grayson.
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View StoryKyle originally lost custody of his daughter after getting charged with assault in 2013. At that point, Todd shared custody with Chloe's mother, Angela. In 2016, though, Angela was arrested for allegedly attempting to defraud Medicaid and food stamps, leaving Todd with sole custody.
Kyle got into trouble again in March 2023 after he was arrested for aggravated assault and released after posting $3,000 bond, per TMZ. He reportedly brandished a "fixed blade" in the altercation, but wife Ashleigh told Page Six that while he has a knife he carries for work, "he did not pull it out or brandish it, nor did he use it on the person." His case is still pending.
Savannah had also starred in Growing Up Chrisley (2019-2023), a spinoff series focused on her and her older brother Chase. It was also put on hiatus when their parents were sentenced to prison. With both parents imprisoned, though, Savannah says there's a new project in the works.
According to Savannah on her Unlocked podcast, fans will get to see how the family is dealing with "having two parents that are incarcerated.
"You're gonna see how my grandparents are dealing with things, how Chase and I are dealing with things," she said. "You're going to literally see every single aspect and there is no holding back."
