In a letter to their daughter, Julie said she cooked dinner for fellow inmates using a radiator during her first Thanksgiving behind bars
On Wednesday, May 28, the couple were released from separate federal prisons. They had both been incarcerated since January 2023 after being found guilty of tax evasion and bank fraud until President Donald Trump issued them full pardons on Tuesday, May 27.
Todd, 56, had been serving time at the Federal Prison Camp Pensacola in Florida, while Julie, 52, was at Federal Medical Center in Lexington, Kentucky. Their daughter Savannah Chrisley picked up Todd, while their son Grayson Chrisley retrieved Julie.
Stepping out for a press conference in Nashville on Friday, Todd expressed disbelief over the news.
"I had a staff member that came to me and said, 'You've just been pardoned,' " Todd recalled of the moment he learned he'd be walking free. "And I just looked at him, and he says, 'No, really, you've been pardoned. It's in the news.' "
Todd said he immediately called Savannah, who confirmed that it was true.
"I remember walking back from the phone and just feeling numb, not really knowing," he continued. "And then after about 10 minutes, all I could think about were the guys that I was leaving behind, because I had made such wonderful relationships with those men. And when I left that day, they -- there was only 317 men at our camp -- but they were lined up shouting when I was walking out. They were saying, 'Don't leave. Don't forget us. Don't forget us.' And my commitment is to them that I will never forget them."
The couple, who've been married since 1996 and rose to fame on USA Network's Chrisley Knows Best, have previously spoken out about their experience behind bars, notably the food they consumed.
In a December 2023 interview with reporter Brian Entin on Chris Cuomo's NewsNation show Cuomo, Todd claimed he was served food past its expiration.
"The food is literally, I'm not exaggerating -- the food is dated and it's out of date by, at minimum, a year," he said. "It's a year past expiration. And they are literally starving these men to death here. These men are getting -- I don't know -- they are getting a thousand calories a day."
Chrisley said he used his own money to buy groceries from the commissary, but alleged that an unnamed employee was limiting his purchases.
"I've been told this by a staff member -- one of the ways she's trying to break me is by cutting down what you can buy in commissary," he said. "So, before she came here, you could buy 12 packs of tuna a week. She cut it down to six, and from six it went to three. She had not given a reason -- when I asked her about it, she said commissary is a privilege, not a right."
He added that he was focused on simple foods.
"I eat tuna, I eat peanut butter -- that's where I get protein. I eat, like, a pasta salad that I make. And then I start over again doing the same thing the next week."
During the same interview on Cuomo, Todd claimed to have witnessed unsanitary conditions involving animals.
"You've got rats, you've got squirrels in the storage facility where the food is," he alleged. "They just covered it up with plastic and then tore the ceiling out because of all the black mold and found a dead cat in the ceiling, and it dropped down on the top of the food."
PEOPLE reached out to the Pensacola Federal Prison Camp for comment at the time of Todd's comments.
Savannah shared a letter from her mother on an April 2024 episode of her Unlocked podcast, which detailed Julie's first holiday season in prison.
"I decided to cook for Thanksgiving," Julie wrote in the letter, dated November 23. "I fought against it but I decided to do it."
Julie explained that about 10 of the prisoners ate together and some of the women made desserts. Julie decided to make chicken and stuffing casseroles.
"It doesn't sound like much but cooking anything in here is a chore," Julie wrote.
Julie went on, "Cooking is done on radiators in the winter and with hot water and a small Rubbermaid orange cooler in the summer. There's no refrigerator, no knives, no staples other than a few spices from commissary. We made the best of it though and just sitting around a table was nice."
"There really are some great women in here. We are all so different; however prison unites you in a way," she added.
"I made it through another holiday. Christmas is next and I'm not looking forward to it," Julie concluded the letter.