Julie Chrisley didn’t strike up a romance during her 28-month prison stay — but was known as “the mom” of her fellow inmates.
“Did anybody ever hit on you?” Real Housewives of Atlanta alum Kandi Burruss asked Julie, 52, during the Wednesday, August 13, episode of the “Chrisley Confessions 2.0” podcast.
“Hit on me?” Julie replied. “No. No, they really didn’t.”
Kandi, 49, went on to clarify her question.
“I’m saying, you were supposed to be in there for seven years originally, right?” she asked Julie. “That’s a long time, because when that happened, I was like, ‘What?’ I was scared. … You were ready to go the whole seven years with nothing?”
Julie did not hesitate with her reply.
“Absolutely. Never crossed my mind,” she said. “I can say that it never crossed my mind. I think people, because of the show, they had this [idea] she’s everybody’s mom. She’s the mom.”
Going into prison with people knowing Julie as the matriarch from Chrisley Knows Best “played to my advantage,” she explained.
“The girls felt like I was their mom in there. They were on their best behavior,” Julie added. “Everybody was sweet to me.”
Julie was incarcerated at the FMC Lexington, Kentucky for 28 months after she and her husband, Todd Chrisley, were convicted on tax evasion and bank and wire fraud charges in 2022. She was sentenced to seven years behind bars while Todd, 56, was sentenced to 12 years at the Federal Prison Camp in Pensacola, Florida. The couple was released this past May after receiving a presidential pardon from President Donald Trump.
Both Julie and Todd have discussed their respective prison stays at length since being released and returning to their podcast.
“Life is rougher than prison life,” Todd said during a podcast episode last month, acknowledging that it’s a “sad thing to say.”
Todd explained that it’s “horrific” being in prison, “but from an emotional and psychological standpoint, it is harder dealing with day to day.”Julie, meanwhile, shared that while behind bars “you don’t have any control,” which is different from the outside world. She also recalled the advice she received when initially reporting to prison.
“People told me this when I first got there: you can’t live out there and in here at the same time,” Julie said. “Because it’ll literally run you crazy, and that’s the truth. The longer you’re there, the more removed you become to the world.”
