Todd Chrisley became a ‘slave’ to money and material things before being found guilty of bank fraud and tax evasion.
The reality TV star, 53, explained on the most recent episode of his podcast, “Chrisley Confessions,” that he let fame go to his head, prompting him to make some questionable decisions.
“I got lost when I couldn’t tell the difference in my self-esteem and my ability,” he said. “And the bigger my net worth got, the less I focused on my self-esteem because everything was built around that ability. Around stuff.”
The producer went on to explain that because he “wanted to keep up with everyone around him,” he started buying “all these cars and all these houses.”
He added: “You become a slave to the things that you thought would bring you peace. So I got lost in that and all my life because I think I was too ignorant – and if I use the word ignorant [I mean] l [didn’t] know that I understood how to distinguish between self-esteem and wealth.”
Chrisley, explaining that he found comfort in his faith amid his legal troubles, said it took him some time to realize that he “wasn’t competing with everyone else around him. [him]’, but rather with himself because his ‘self-esteem is low’.
But discovering himself isn’t the only thing Chrisley has done since he was found guilty. He explained that the situation has brought him closer to his 26-year-old wife, Julie Chrisley.
When it comes to how his marriage has been affected by the recent problems they face, he replied, “I said it brought me closer to my wife in my perspective. I feel like for me personally, internally, my marriage is the strongest I’ve ever felt it’s ever been – that’s for me, that’s how I feel.
Todd told Julie, 49, on the podcast, “I feel like for the first time in my life, in my marriage, I feel like my marriage is feeding a part of me that I didn’t even know was starving.
“I feel like I understand you from another level” [more] than I’ve ever done before and I feel like you’ve opened up more since all this than all the time we’ve been in our marriage.”
Julie – who shares daughter Savannah, 24, and sons Chase, 26, and Grayson, 16, with Todd – agreed with her husband before adding: “I think this situation, our season of life right now, is our showed what it is not just about [what] our plan is, but it is what God’s plan is.
“And for a long time I think it was always our plan, not God’s plan.”
In June, TMZ reported that Julie and Todd — who also has two children, Lindsie, 32, and Kyle, 30, with his ex-wife Teresa Terry — have been found guilty of bank fraud and tax evasion.
Prosecutors alleged that the couple submitted false documents to banks when applying for loans. Julie also allegedly filed false credit reports and bank statements when she tried to rent a house in California.
At the first trial, Todd’s former business partner, Mark Braddock, testified against him, claiming they had been intimate for about a year in the early 2000s.
Todd’s attorney, Bruce Morris, claimed in his opening statement that Braddock was “obsessed” with Todd.
Morris and Todd’s representatives did not immediately respond to Vidak For Congress’s requests for comment at the time.