Julie and Todd Chrisley are grateful to be out of prison, but that doesn’t mean adjusting to life afterward has been easy for them. President Donald Trump pardoned the Chrisley Knows Best stars in May 2025. Since then, Julie and Todd have been trying to re-acclimate. The process has been a lot easier for Todd than it has for Julie.
Todd explained that his mindset helped him adjust.
Because Julie and Todd received a full presidential pardon, they didn’t face any restrictions after their release from prison. Their movement wasn’t restricted, they were never on probation, and they didn’t spend any time in a halfway house. This meant that they were “thrown right back into the real world,” Julie explained on the July 23 episode of their Chrisley Confessions 2.0 podcast. While it was “such a blessing,” it was also difficult for her at the same time.
Todd agreed that “life keeps moving” for most people, but “people that are incarcerateds’ lives stay stuck on the day that they turned themselves in.”
However, the transition was easier for Todd because he never thought of himself as being in prison. Instead, he chose to reframe his prison time as time spent in a “s—– hotel.”
Julie struggled a lot more.
For Julie, returning home after spending time in prison was “really hard.” She said, “Emotionally, it was a lot. It was like an emotional overload for me.” Other women who were in prison at the same time as her and later released have had a similar experience.
“I’ve actually talked to a few of the women that I was in prison with [that are] already home,” she said. “And we all have this general consensus that — it’s kind of weird to even say it…”
Todd jumped in with, “No, it’s not weird. Life is rougher than prison life.” He clarified that the conditions in prison are “so horrific,” but “that’s from a physical standpoint.” In some ways, life outside of prison has been harder for both of them. “From an emotional and psychological standpoint, it is harder dealing with day to day,” he explained.
Julie explained that this is partially because she was so focused on her own survival in prison.
“When you’re in prison, you know that you don’t have any control,” she stated. “There’s very little you can do because you’re in prison. And people told me this when I first got there, you can’t live out there and in here at the same time because it’ll literally run you crazy. And the longer you’re there, the more removed you become to the world.”
She also spoke about how being away from her family impacted her. “The longer that people are away from their kids, as crazy as it sounds, because it’s a double edged sword, the easier it becomes because you get into your own routine,” she explained. “It doesn’t mean you don’t miss them, you don’t love ‘em, all that, but just from me being in prison, I had to just watch out for me.”
Julie believes that while in prison, “you get into that mode” because it’s what people “have to do to survive in there.”
“I had to take care of me,” she emphasized. “I had to make sure that I was good, as good as I could be. Physically, mentally, spiritually, emotionally, and that’s all I could really do.”
