Todd Chrisley says he worked as an escort at 18, shortly after leaving his small hometown in South Carolina for Los Angeles in the 1980s.
The 57-year-old reality television personality made the revelation during a joint interview with his wife, Julie Chrisley, 17 months after the couple received pardons from US President Donald Trump and were released from prison sentences for fraud and tax evasion.
Todd said the short-lived career began in 1986, when he was working as a waiter at The Cheesecake Factory in Marina Del Rey, a coastal Los Angeles neighborhood.
One evening, a group of six or seven women he described as “good-looking” dined at the restaurant and left him an $800 tip.
“Coming from where I came from, a small little town in South Carolina, I had never seen $800 handed to me in my life,” he said on Bunnie XO’s podcast, Dumb Blonde.
After Todd left the restaurant, one of the diners—a 38-year-old woman—made an offer that he said ultimately introduced him to escort work.
The Daily Mail has contacted a representative for Todd for comment.
Todd Chrisley, pictured last year, says he worked as an escort at 18 after moving from South Carolina to Los Angeles in the 1980s
He made the claim during a joint interview with his wife, Julie Chrisley, 17 months after Donald Trump pardoned the couple; they are pictured in 2017
Todd recalled walking out of The Cheesecake Factory after his shift and thinking: “I have made it. I have f***ing made it. I’ve got 800 bucks.”
He then noticed a man leaning against a parked limousine, a scene he said looked as though it belonged in an episode of Dynasty.
The man eventually approached, introduced himself and told the teenage waiter: “My lady would like to speak with you.”
Following the Southern manners he said he had been taught, Todd agreed and approached the limousine. The woman lowered the window and praised his “service” that night.
“Where are you heading?” she asked. Todd said he lived nearby on Glencoe, prompting her to reply: “Get in. I’ll drop you off.”
“Well,” Todd told Bunnie, “she didn’t drop me off. Let’s just say that it turned into a very quick encounter. The sunroof was open, I’m having sex with this woman as we’re driving through LA, and I’m thinking—this is every dream I have ever had.”
Todd said he began “seeing her” regularly, concluding that “clearly the first ride was pretty good for her.” But eight months later, he said he was “devastated” to learn she was married.
He continued the relationship for “another month or so” before becoming involved with a second woman who was in the process of divorcing her husband. Todd claimed the woman had shaved her pubic hair into the shape of a heart for Valentine’s Day.
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Todd, pictured last year in Nashville, said his brief stint as a gigolo began while he was working at The Cheesecake Factory in Marina Del Rey in 1986
Todd discussed his past with podcaster Bunnie XO, pictured with her estranged husband Jelly Roll at this year’s Grammy Awards before their divorce was announced
When Bunnie asked about the size of his penis, Todd replied that he had “never had a complaint,” adding: “It’s a two-hand job.”
Before her marriage to country music star Jelly Roll broke down, Bunnie had also worked as a Las Vegas escort and at times reportedly earned as much as $100,000 in a single night.
Bunnie, whose real name is Alisa DeFord, described her troubled early years—including homelessness as a teenager and work as a casino call girl—in her memoir, Stripped Down.
She has also spoken about battling addiction, having an abortion at 16, surviving sexual assault and being arrested seven times between 1999 and 2006, when she was 19 to 26 years old.
During the podcast appearance, Todd also gave his candid reaction to reports that his daughter Savannah had secretly married convicted fraudster Jason Galanis.
Galanis, 56, is just one year younger than Todd and served time alongside him at the Federal Prison Camp in Pensacola, Florida.
He was convicted in connection with what prosecutors called “two multimillion-dollar fraud schemes” and received a 189-month prison sentence in September 2020.
Galanis, a former business associate of Hunter Biden, testified from prison during the Republican impeachment inquiry into then-US President Joe Biden in March 2024.
Todd also shared his candid reaction to his daughter Savannah’s secret marriage to convicted fraudster Jason Galanis
Trump commuted Galanis’ sentence in March 2025, two months before the Chrisleys received their pardons. This week, reports emerged that Savannah, 29, had privately married Galanis in July and that the couple are expecting their first child.
“He’s 20 years older. It was not something I embraced,” Todd admitted during the joint interview with Julie on Bunnie’s podcast.
He said he eventually realized he had “a choice to make: it was either embrace my daughter’s decision or lose my daughter.”
“And nothing is ever coming between me and my daughter. I love Savannah with my heart and soul, but did I advocate for this? No.”
Todd added that Galanis had treated Savannah with “the utmost of respect,” noting that she had spent years campaigning intensely for her parents’ release while they were incarcerated.
He joked that Galanis was “of his generation” and said Savannah would have “20 years with him, and I’ll retire with him in assisted living.”
