The 'Chrisley Knows Best' star has been reading her mother's prison diaries documenting the start of her reduced 5-year sentence.
Savannah Chrisley is continuing her Prison Diaries series, featuring journal entries written by her mother, Julie Chrisley. Last month, the reality TV star read emotional journal entries by her mother, written during her first weeks in prison.
On Tuesday's episode of the Unlocked with Savannah Chrisley podcast, the Chrisley Knows Best star read the second part of her mother's journal entries from February 2023, where she documents a health scare.
Julie is currently serving a reduced five-year sentence in Lexington, Kentucky, after being convicted on federal tax fraud, alongside her husband, Todd Chrisley -- who is currently serving his reduced 10-year sentence in the Federal Correctional Institution (FCI) Pensacola in Florida.
At the start of the series, Savannah reads an entry from her mother where she shares that she was instructed to go to the medical unit for a flu shot. Julie writes that upon requesting to get her blood pressure checked, she was told she wouldn't be able to have it done.
Savannah becomes emotional as her mother reacts to the denied requests by saying, "I'm worth more to my family dead than I am alive."
"As her daughter reading these things, first off, Mom suffers from high blood pressure really, really bad," Savanah shares. "All she wanted was her blood pressure checked and they wouldn't even do that. And to hear your mother say she's worth more dead than alive is probably the most heartbreaking thing anyone could ever hear. I know that my mother has made such an impact on so many people's lives and that's worth more than anything else."
On Day 17, Julie writes that she was called down to the doctor's office thinking that it was an appointment with the gynecologist. However, the appointment kick-started one of Julie's biggest fears -- the return of her cancer.
"I sat down with the doctor and she proceeds to tell me that my HCG level was high ... 10.2," Savannah reads. "This is a pregnancy hormone, it should not be that high, if it were a little higher, I would test positive on a pregnancy test. Since that's not a possibility, it could be a sign of a tumor. I literally fell apart, how could this be happening? I'm going to have blood work redone and have a scan. I've not told anyone, I'm not going to until I know what's going on. I'm so scared, I just want my husband, I don't know if I can do this without him."
Days after the reading of her levels, and not having any answers, Julie shared how scary the process is.
"This is so scary navigating my health journey all alone," Julie said. "I miss Todd so much."
Savannah becomes emotional as she thinks about her mother having a cancer scare while in prison.
"To think of her sitting there worrying about. 'Oh my god my cancer may be back.' And something that has stayed so steadfast in every single letter is 'I just want my husband. I just want Todd. I miss him.'"
Julie does share that the elevated levels may be a hernia and the doctors were set to run more test.
The letters end on Feb. 20, with no further updates and Savannah shares that she is willing to continue the series if her mother sends more. Until then, she has a special message for her mom.
"All I can say is I've never been so proud to call my mom, Mom," she says. "I see her strength and her resilience and her humor and heart and everything. She is everything that I love and everything that I hope to be. So reading these letters and knowing her struggle about how she's worrying about her kids and her husband, it just brings me so much peace knowing that's the woman my mother is."
In June 2022, Julie and Todd were found guilty on federal tax fraud charges. The pair reported to their respective prison facilities in January 2023.
In January of this year, the pair got a slight legal victory as they were awarded a settlement from the state of Georgia in the amount of $1 million after their 2019 federal lawsuit against Joshua Waites, the former Director of Special Investigations for the Georgia Department of Revenue, was resolved.
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