ATLANTA — It’s been two years since Savannah Chrisley, 27, stepped up to become the legal guardian of her younger siblings Chloe, 12, and Grayson, 18, following their parents Todd and Julie Chrisley‘s imprisonment.
Her parents were convicted of bank fraud and tax evasion charges in 2022 and the shakeup, which also required Savannah to become her family’s breadwinner, presented a lot of challenges.
“I wasn’t expecting to get two kids,” Savannah tells PEOPLE exclusively. “So, between that, legal expenses to fight for my parents, I am just like anyone else out here. Sure, I put a smile on my face. I look the part, I play the part. But it doesn’t mean I actually am the part. You fake it till you make it. That’s the world that we live in.”
The reality star admits: “I’ve struggled.”
“I’ve had to work multiple jobs. I sell houses. I do podcasting. I do social media influencing. I do anything that comes my way,” she shares in this week’s issue of PEOPLE. “I’m no better than anyone else out here, to have to struggle. And I am not lazy. I know that I have two kids to provide for, and I know I have two parents that I need to get home. So, I’ll work my ass off till the wee hours of the morning if I have to. It’s just who I am.”
This was all a big change for Savannah, who was “like any other teenager who got on TV, had money,” she says of her days on reality show hit Chrisley Knows Best, which began in 2014 and ran for 10 seasons. “I spent it like it was never going to end.”
The reality of Savannah’s new norm set in when she learned she could visit her father at Federal Prison Camp Pensacola in Florida for the first time. It led to her having a “breakdown,” she says.
“I just remember Chloe’s room was a mess. I didn’t know what you had to wear. They’re super strict on guidelines for visitation wardrobe,” she recalls. “I just remember falling to the floor, and I was like, ‘I can’t do this. I am not my mom. I cannot do this.’ I then just sat there, and I was like, ‘If I don’t do it, who else will?” And I picked myself up, got their clothes, and we went on our way. … You figure it out.”
“I’ve always said, ‘God meant for me to be a mom.’ So, there’s a lot of things that just come naturally for me. But it’s a learning process, for sure,” she adds of caring for her brother Grayson, who is now enrolled at the University of Alabama, and sister Chloe, who is the biological daughter of Savannah’s brother Kyle Chrisley but was legally adopted by Todd, 55, and Julie, 52, in 2016 amid Kyle’s struggles with substance abuse.
Grayson has been “a huge help,” but now that he’s away at college, caring for Chloe solo is “a little bit more challenging,” Savannah admits. “My heart breaks for her. She’s not had an easy upbringing, and she’s had to endure the loss of parents twice.”
Weekly therapy sessions are helping the preteen, and “she’s making progress,” despite kids being “mean to her at school,” Savannah says. “Me, Chloe and Grayson tackle everything together. Grayson had to grow up so fast, and I hate it, but he says, ‘You saved me. I don’t know what Chloe and I would’ve done without you.’ And I look at him, and I’m like, ‘He saved me more times than I can count.’”
Todd and Julie’s combined 19-year sentence has since been reduced, though their initial appeals to their case had been denied. The longtime couple, who wed in 1996, have firmly denied all wrongdoing in the case.
In the time since they’ve been away, Savannah has starred on Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test and The Masked Singer. She also hosts a lucrative podcast, called Unlocked with Savannah Chrisley, which she says gives her and her guests “a platform to tell the truth.”
“I have tried to use my podcast as a platform to let people know it’s okay to not be okay,” she shares. “It takes a lot of strength to actually ask for help. It takes a lot of strength and courage to reach out and say like, ‘Hey, I need you. Can you show up for me today?’ That will always be my mission. I don’t even think it’s just being an advocate. I think it’s just being a human with a heart, and having empathy for others.”
Savannah has also focused on advocating for prison reform, inspired by her parents’ own experience behind bars. “I would say probably a year after my parents left, I just became very outspoken because I knew nothing about our criminal justice system,” says Chrisley, who is now a senior fellow for criminal justice reform at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).
“My eyes have been open to what actually happens in our criminal justice system, how broken it is,” she continues. “When I started realizing these things, I just knew I can’t stay silent about it any longer. I have to come out about it.”
While she has spread awareness of issues occurring in prisons and the legal system, she’s used her platform to address alleged corruption in her parents’ case.
“I believe that time for myself will come when I get my parents home,” she concludes. “I’m only one person. So, it’s been a little bit of a challenge. But right now, I find my strength and my energy in fighting for my parents.”
By DORY JACKSON/People