Lindsie Chrisley Reveals Reason She Stayed Away From Embattled Parents On Thanksgiving

Lindsie Chrisley opened up about why she decided to spend some time away from her parents, Todd and Julie Chrisley, after the reality stars' prison sentencing. Todd and Julie are known for their American reality tv series "Chrisley Knows Best," which started airing in 2014.

The couple had their share of legal troubles this year after a judge found them guilty of conspiring to defraud banks of over $30 million in fraudulent loans. They were also convicted of tax crimes like trying to defraud the Internal Revenue Service.

Todd and Julie were sentenced to 12 and 7 years in prison late last month, respectively. They would also have 16 months of probation.

Read on to learn more.

During a recent episode of her "The Southern Tea" podcast, Lindsie shed some light on why she and her family spent time away from her parents during Thanksgiving. She explained that Todd and Julie had just been sentenced at the time, and emotions were high. According to the reality star, it would not have been in her son's best interest to see his grandparents like that.

Lindsie explained per People, "With my parents' sentencing just being a couple of days before Thanksgiving and me having Jackson for Thanksgiving, emotions were very high at that point, and so I just didn't feel it was in the best interest of Jackson for him to go and see my parents in any state that they normally aren't if that makes sense."

The reality tv star explained that Todd and Julie needed time to process the verdict, and she tried to give that to them by staying away.

Lindsie continued, "They needed time to process, and I wanted to be able to give them that time and very much struggled with giving up spending the time with my parents and having to make a decision as a mother over a daughter like that was a very difficult thing."

Besides it being a tough time for her family, Lindsie revealed that her 10-year-old son was too much of a handful for her parents to handle. She claimed that, unlike his much calmer cousin, he is like a "tornado" whenever he awakens. The reality star shares Jackson with Will Campbell, her ex-husband.

She said, "Also, Jackson is very different than my niece Chloe. Like, my parents can tell her to sit down and watch TV, she's gonna sit down and watch TV, and you won't even know the child is in the house."

Lindsie noted that Jackson's boundless energy from the time he wakes up till it's time for bed was not a particularly good combination for the current situation with her family.

She explained via People, "And so, with that kind of energy going on, and then you know, just not so great news that just wasn't a good combination in my opinion, so I had to make a hard decision as a mom and absolutely hate it."

Todd shares Chrisley with his ex Teresa Terry and the father and daughter were on the outs until 2021. They reportedly reconciled last year while the Chrisley family was in the middle of their legal troubles. During the trial, Lindsie testified on her parents' behalf but later revealed that the trial was not what brought them back together.

In a July episode of her podcast, she said, "I can confidently tell you there was no reconnection due to any legal reasons whatsoever - nothing like that ever transpired." According to Lindsie, her 2021 divorce from Campbell prompted her father to reach out and rekindle their relationship.

She recalled, "After my divorce stuff had become public, my dad had posted, "I'm here, I love you, whatever's going on in your life right now, I see it." 

Lindsie continued, "that's really more so how we were able to reconnect. So, to answer that question - in short, it was definitely because of my divorce."

On November 22, a federal judge gave Todd and Julie their sentencing for tax evasion and bank fraud. While Todd was given 12 years in custody and 16 months of probation, his wife Julie was sentenced to seven years in jail and 16 months probation.

Peter Tarantino, the couple's ex-accountant, was also involved in the case and received a three-year sentence due to his ties with the fraud scheme. Todd's lawyer, Alex Little of Burr & Forman LLP, released a statement to People after the sentencing, revealing his client's intention to appeal the case.