Savannah Chrisley is opening up about the painful reasons behind her falling out with brother Chase.
“As hard as I am [on him], there is some fear in me that something’s going to happen to Chase,” Savannah shared on Tuesday’s new episode of Lifetime’s The Chrisleys: Back to Reality. The eldest son and daughter of Todd and Julie Chrisley detailed their widening division on previous episodes of the new series, but focused mainly on Savannah’s resentment that she assumed the majority of family responsibilities when their parents were sentenced to federal prison for tax evasion and bank fraud in 2022.
But on episode 5, both of the Chrisley kids offer viewers a peek past the anger, and into the sadness and fear that lies at the heart of the once-inseparable siblings’ feud.
Lifetime
“I’ve had a lot of really traumatic stuff happen, not only stuff with my parents, but other stuff too, and I don’t think I ever did face it,” Chase admitted. “I kind of just buried it and didn’t talk about it. I kind of felt like if I didn’t talk about it then it didn’t exist. The older I get, the more I’m coming to realize that all those things have affected me.”
Over the course of Back to Reality, Chase opens up about a strange health problem he’s been facing for years in which he “can’t keep food down,” causing him to run to the bathroom to vomit after some meals, and sometimes after just drinking water. Chase’s drinking is also identified as a major concern among several Chrisleys, including Savannah, their younger brother Grayson, and grandparents Nanny Faye Chrisley, Pam Hughes, and Harvey Hughes.
“I think she’s afraid of something happening, like me f—ing up and doing something,” Chase told the therapist he and Savannah share, Matt Wade. “Whenever I drink, I’ve gotten in a little bit of trouble.” Indeed, in January, Chase was arrested and charged with simple battery after allegedly hitting an Atlanta-area sports bar manager in the face. Finding out about the arrest two years after their parents’ incarceration, Savannah jokingly recalled thinking, “It was just like, ‘Dear God, can I change my last name?'”
But in a session with Wade on episode 5 of Back to Reality, Savannah dropped her humor and even her anger to reveal the true source of her beef with Chase. Elaborating on her fear that “something’s going to happen” to her brother, Savannah insisted, “It’s very valid. Just in the way that he looks. Chase is not Chase. Like, it’s literally a blank shell. You can tell in all the weight that he’s lost and the rings around his eyes. He’s not who I know as my brother.”
“I feel like I’ve already buried my brother,” she emotionally revealed.
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In phone calls from prison, Todd and Julie separately took broader views of the sibling spat, with Julie sharing that “it hurts me that everyone is not banding together,” and Todd noting, “If Chase visits me, everything that’s wrong is Savannah’s fault; if Savannah visits me, everything that’s wrong is Chase’s fault.”
For his own part, Chase acknowledged to Wade that he understands his sister’s position. “She feels like she got dealt a really s—ty hand, which is a fair feeling, but she wants control over my life.”
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Savannah echoed that exact sentiment, but explained that prior to putting distance between them, she sought control over Chase’s life because “there’s a part of me that’s so afraid that he’s going to die, and I don’t even want to try to have a relationship with him, because if something were to happen to him, it’s like, now I’m closed off enough to where I would be devastated. But I feel like I’ve been just trying to grieve the loss of him little by little, so that when it happens, it’s not this big thing.”
The Chrisleys have dealt with loss and betrayal in the past. Previous episodes of Back to Reality cover Todd, Julie, and their kids’ bitter split with half-sister Lindsie, whom Todd had with ex-wife Teresa Terry in 1989. Julie and her parents also dealt with the tragic accidental death of her brother Trey in 2002.
Still, Chase told Wade that he misses his little sister. “I want to be close to her, I want to have a good, solid relationship with her,” he said. But reasoned, “I just think it’s better for both of us right now” to stay distant “until she gets to a place where she wants to have a healthy, productive relationship with me.”
