Todd Chrisley‘s family is going through it in the weeks following his conviction.
As we’ve been reporting, the 53-year-old TV star and his 49-year-old wife Julie Chrisley were convicted on charges of fraud and tax evasion last month, nearly three full years after their bombshell 2019 indictment. Now, the Chrisley Knows Best star is opening up about what this process has been like for their family — and especially the couple’s youngest son, 16-year-old Grayson.
Related: What’s Happening With ‘Chrisley Knows Best’ After Todd & Julie’s Fraud Conviction
On Thursday, the USA Network personality spoke about it in a new episode of the family’s podcast, Chrisley Confessions, on PodcastOne. Acknowledging that social media commentary in particular has been difficult for Grayson, Todd noted the boy’s sweet and kind nature.
He explained:
“Grayson is the sweetest child and has the most tender heart. … We’ve had so much of an overflowing of love and support, and by all means that support far outweighs any negativity we have had. But there has been some of those comments, and it does hurt his feelings.”
Some of “those comments.” We wonder if he’s talking about legit trolling — or just anyone that doesn’t take his side in the legal trouble.
Still, Todd explained that he’s tried to counsel Grayson about how to take in the hateful messages his family receives online — even though it doesn’t always work.
The Georgia native explained that it was important for his youngest son to put things into their proper perspective:
“I said to him, ‘Well, you understand that you’re allowing someone that you’re never going to meet and their comment to affect your day, your mood, your self worth, who your family is.’ I said, ‘If you would spend as much time listening to God as you do this message that someone has sent who has two followers and a cat as their emoji.'”
That’s honestly pretty good advice?! Everybody should take it!
It doesn’t change the legal situation Grayson’s parents are facing at this point as they await sentencing following last month’s conviction. For all we know the Chrisleys see federal prosecutors as “haters” at this point.
Related: Todd & Julie Got To Go Home After Guilty Verdict — But Under THESE Strict Rules
Julie spoke up at that point, adding:
“Someone else’s opinion of you should not matter. You need to know who you are in the depths of your soul. Who you are as a person, who you are as a spouse, as a friend, as a parent, as a child.”
Of course, this isn’t the first time we’ve realized a Chrisley family member is struggling with the aftermath of their parents’ guilty verdict. As we reported several weeks ago, Todd and Julie’s 24-year-old daughter Savannah has already spoken out about the conviction and her future outlook beyond it.
It sounds like Todd is still holding out hope, though. Two weeks ago on a prior episode of the couple’s podcast, he spoke frankly about the verdict and sentencing, and shared his optimism that his faith in justice would prevail:
“We wanted to let everyone know that it’s a very sad, heartbreaking time for our family right now. But we still hold steadfast in our faith and we trust that God will do what he does because God’s a miracle worker, and that’s what we’re holding out for.”
So God will protect them from their fraud conviction? Yeah, not so sure about that. Guess we’ll see at sentencing…
Still, we can appreciate this has been a trying time for the family as a whole. No easy solutions!
[Image via Chrisley Knows Best/YouTube]