Todd and Julie Chrisley on Critics, Trump Pardon and The Masked Singer

Life after lockup: The reveal of Todd and Julie Chrisley as the Croissants on “The Masked Singer” might come with some controversy — given the reality TV couple’s conviction of tax evasion and bank fraud, followed by a pardon by Trump. But Todd told Variety that he hasn’t faced an in-person negative encounter in the months since he and Julie were released from prison.

Of course, online, it’s a bit different. “You have people that say things on social media that they used to love us, but now that Trump pardoned us,” he said. “Their issue is who pardoned us. It’s not that we were pardoned, it’s who pardoned us. So I would say to any person that has an issue with that, if they were in our situation and President Trump could have pardoned them, they would have stood in line to have gotten that pardon.”

Julie said she hasn’t seen much blowback because, she believes, the couple has been transparent about what happened, having been convicted and sentenced to a combined 19 years in prison in November 2022 (which was later reduced). The couple reported to prison in 2023.

“If we didn’t talk about it on ‘Chrisley Knows Best,’ it was because that was a decision that the network made,” she said. “They didn’t really want to delve into that. But we’ve never shied away from what we’ve gone through, and it’s taken so long to get to the other side. We just look at it as, it’s our story. And so we’re going to tell our story. Who better to tell our story than us.”

Todd said he doesn’t respond to the criticism — unless it’s directed right at him. “I live my life based off of what I know is the right thing to do for me, my wife, my children and my mother. I try not to be rude. I try not to offend people,” he said. “But if you knock on my door and you come to my door with that, then I’ve got something waiting for you.”

In their quest for a pardon, the Chrisleys argued that their conviction was due to political persecution, even though there was no proof of that. Now, Todd Chrisley has tempered that tone, and said that “I don’t want my conversations to be political. I don’t want the movements that I make to be politicized. I want the world to know that Julie and I and our family are the same today. Our core value system is still the same, and it’s still intact. We’re a family that loves people, and our love is not conditional because you love this person, or you live this way, or you believe in this. We are so blessed that that everyone that has a seat at our table, for the most part, has a different political view. And yet, we still have dinner together here in Nashville. We still have a great time. We’re there for each other when something happens and I feel like that, that’s what the world needs.

“You can sit and say, ‘I hate President Trump,’ ‘I hate Joe Biden,’ ‘I hate Obama,’ ‘I hate Clinton.’ That’s like a football team. I love Clemson University. That’s where Julie and I grew up, but my son goes to Alabama, so we can’t pull for Clemson when they’re playing Alabama. Just understand that you have a different team that you root for. But do it with respect, do it with kindness and do it with generosity,” he said. “And if we could all get to that place in life, then I think that the world would be a much better place.”

On “The Masked Singer,” the Chrisleys performed “Jailhouse Rock” on last week’s episode, and they agreed that it was perhaps a bit too on the nose.

“We’ve leaned into it since it’s happened, we haven’t ran from it,” Todd Chrisley said. “And it just felt right. It was kind of like, ‘you’re not going to hold this over our head, you’re not going to shame us with this.’ And I just felt good with that song. I’ve always loved that song, and it just felt appropriate.”

Between “Jailhouse Rock” and the clue package, it wasn’t hard to figure out it was the Chrisleys — and indeed, panelist Jenny McCarthy-Wahlberg quickly identified them.

“We said to the folks at ‘Masked Singer’ that these clues are too telling,” Todd said. “ It’s too fresh, they’re going to figure this out quick. I’ve known Jenny for years, and I always felt she was going to be the one to figure this out.”

The Chrisleys’ daughter Savannah appeared on “The Masked Singer” in Season 11 as the Afghan Hound, but Todd and Julie didn’t tell her they were going on the show. She figured it out anyway.

“The day that we were on set, I got a text from her, and she goes, ‘Are you doing Masked Singer?’ And I said, ‘Why would you ask that?’ And then she called, and she said, ‘Dad, someone there on the set just sent me a text and said they ran into you and mom.’ So that’s how she found out.”

Why do “The Masked Singer”? “I’m not going to lie, I was a little apprehensive,” Julie Chrisley said. “Todd can sing. He has a great voice. He’s recorded a song with Sarah Evans before. So I knew he would be fine. It was something that was completely out of my comfort zone, but I was excited to do it.”

Then came the costume, and the Croissant sealed the deal for the two of them. “Savannah’s late fiancé, Nic Kerdiles, who passed away in a motorcycle accident, was French, and I kind of felt like that was a wink from him, because we love him so much,” Todd said. “I just looked at Julie and I said, ‘we have to do the Croissants.’”

The Chrisleys said they’re busy this year working on five different series: Besides Lifetime’s “The Chrisleys: Back to Reality,” Julie has a new cooking show, as well as another show with Savannah, while Todd is working on a separate project in the U.K.

“I say this often, that so many people that go through what we have gone through, their whole world is shattered. There’s nothing left for them,” Todd said. “We were blessed that that didn’t happen to us. We were able to come home to our home, we were able to have a car, to be able to have our clothes, to be able to go and sit down for a nice dinner. And so many people don’t have that. So it has been a very humbling season for our family, and it has exposed us to families that we probably would have never had any interaction with. And so I look at that, and I look at where our life is today and how blessed we are since we’ve been home. And I don’t take it for granted.”

Watch the Chrisleys as they’re unmasked on “The Masked Singer”: