Todd Chrisley Says He ‘Cried Myself to Sleep’ on His First Evening in Jail

Todd Chrisley is opening up about his time behind bars.

Sitting down with Juju Chang for ABC Information Studios’ IMPACT x Nightline particular The Chrisleys: Life After Lockup one month after he and spouse Julie have been pardoned and subsequently launched from federal custody, the couple recalled their experiences in jail.

“Todd, take us behind bars with you. What was that first evening like?” Chang asks.

“I used to be indignant at God,” Todd, 57, replied. “And after I went to mattress that evening and the lights went out, I cried myself to sleep and I stated, ‘God, why are you permitting this?'”

Todd and Julie additionally mirrored on the issues they took as a right earlier than being behind bars.

“You do not notice the issues that you just took as a right till you do not have it,” Todd shared. “So your freedom, your potential to go to church, your potential to exit to eat, you recognize, to remain in your mattress all day, these issues are taken from you, so when you may have them again, it is a blessing.”

When requested concerning the “huge issues” and “little issues” she missed whereas serving her sentence, Julie, 52, admitted, “My youngsters and my husband, you recognize, I missed birthdays and holidays and graduations and issues that I can by no means get again.”

“So now I simply should concentrate on what’s forward of us,” she added.

Todd and Julie have been granted full pardons by President Donald Trump in Might, they usually have been each launched from their respective prisons the next day.

The couple, who have been first indicted by a federal grand jury in 2019, had not seen one another since reporting to jail in January 2023 after being convicted of tax evasion and financial institution fraud the earlier yr, expenses they’ve denied.

They have been initially sentenced to a mixed 19 years behind bars, however later noticed their sentences diminished by almost two years every in September 2023.

They instantly started interesting their case, and whereas Todd’s conviction was upheld, Julie’s was initially vacated as a result of inadequate proof. Nonetheless, a decide later dominated that her authentic punishment was enough. 

In PEOPLE’s unique sneak peek of The Chrisleys: Life After Lockup, Todd stated he was eternally modified by his expertise in jail.

“You do not notice how a lot your freedom means to you till you do not have it,” he says within the clip, including that being incarcerated “has to alter you.”

“If it did not change you, then you definately’re not human,” he continues.

Following his launch from jail, the patriarch additionally spoke out what he claimed to be his and his spouse’s wrongful conviction in a press convention.

“Although this pardon has occurred, I nonetheless was convicted of one thing that I didn’t do,” Todd stated. “It may very well be you, it may very well be you, it may very well be any of you, and someplace on this room, somebody has had a member of the family that has been affected by the system. So I perceive the disgrace that is round it, however I refuse to feed into that, as a result of disgrace is sort of a most cancers that simply spreads, and I’ve no disgrace.”

Within the teaser, he added, “I don’t have an apology to provide you or anybody else over the cash that I’ve made.”

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The Chrisleys: Life After Lockup is obtainable to stream on Hulu and Disney+.