Todd and Julie Chrisley have been married for nearly 30 years. But after the former reality TV stars both went to prison following their 2022 conviction on fraud and tax evasion charges, they went more than two years without speaking. 

It wasn’t until last month, when they were both pardoned by Donald Trump, that Todd and Julie finally saw each other again. Recently, they opened up about their emotional reunion in an interview with the president’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump. 

Reuniting with her husband was ‘surreal’ but not ‘awkward,’ Julie Chrisley says 

In the interview, which airs Saturday as part of Fox News’ My View With Lara Trump, Todd and Julie share that they went 28 months without speaking to each other. He was serving his sentence at FPC Pensacola in Florida, while she was incarcerated at FMC Lexington in Kentucky. 

What was it like when they reconnected after their release? 

“It was surreal but people have asked, was it weird, was it awkward? It really wasn’t,” Julie explained. 

For Todd, even though he wasn’t physically with his wife, he felt she was still by his side. 

“I think for me, I was never away from her because she was in my spirit the entire time,” he said. “I thought of her every second of my day. And so when I hugged her the first time, it was like I was home.”

But even thought Todd felt connected to Julie throughout his time in prison, he stressed that they were not exactly the same people they were when they went away.  

“It was not like I had been missing or I knew I was coming home to the same woman that I left. Now, when I say the same, I’m talking about in my heart spiritually,” he said. “We have changed. And if we did not change in these 28 months, it would have been wasted.”

Todd and Julie Chrisley speak out about criminal justice reform 

One thing that’s changed for Todd and Julie since they went to prison? Both have a new understanding of the realities of the criminal justice system. And each has vowed to speak out about improving conditions for prisoners and lowering incarceration rates in the U.S.   

“I have a dear friend in there who’s 77 years old. And that, unless God intervenes, she’s going to die in there,” Julie told Trump. “I mean she could be any of our grandmothers.” 

“There’s so many young women who are young mothers who got these crazy sentences, never been in trouble in their life,” she added. “You know, it’s just, I’m not walking away. That’s something, a pledge that I’ve made to them and to myself.”

“You know, you’ve got kids in prison for selling marijuana,” Todd pointed out. “But now it’s almost legalized everywhere. But yet we don’t make that retroactive for these young men. These young men still have a chance. They’re in their 20s, 30, 33 years old. Let them come home. Let them get on a job. Let them pay taxes. And if they mess up again, well, listen, the prison doors are wide open.”

Lara Trump’s interview with Julie, Todd, Savannah, and Grayson Chrisley airs Saturday, June 28 at 9 p.m. ET during FOX News Channel’s My View with Lara Trump. 

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