The Todd Chrisley net worth question is fresh in fans’ (and detractors’) minds, now that Chrisley Knows Best has been renewed once more. How much money is Todd Chrisley worth? How does he make the bulk of his money these days? And how did he resolve that massive, $45 million bankruptcy claim?
Of course, the most common story related to the Todd Chrisley net worth matter is still the $45 million bankruptcy claim the Atlantan filed in Federal court in August of 2012. Though, at the time, the Chrisley family was living a gold-plated life in its 30,000 square foot Roswell mansion, and spending an alleged $300,000 per year on clothing, Todd Chrisley’s attorneys painted a conflicting picture: according to them, the budding reality TV star had $4.2 million in assets–primarily the house in which he and his family lived–and a crushing $49.4 million in debt.
At the time, reps said the Todd Chrisley bankruptcy case stemmed from a bad $30 million investment: “[Todd] guaranteed a real estate development loan and it failed,” said Chrisley’s attorney, Robert Furr. “He was on the hook for $30 million. If he hadn’t had that happen, he would have been fine, financially.”
True…except for the additional $12 million in mortgages Todd owed; the $4.4 million loan his former beauty queen wife Julie gave him, and the $595,227.98 in back taxes that Todd owed the IRS. In early 2014, things were indeed bleak in the Chrisleys’ world: the bank was set to foreclose on the family’s nine-bedroom mansion, and a two-bedroom apartment was what the family had to look forward to.
You have to fast forward three years from that low point, to this past April, to find the Todd Chrisley bankruptcy case resolved and the family finally in the clear. Specifics weren’t exactly forthcoming, as Todd Chrisley and company are rather secretive about their finances, but, in the words of Todd himself, he and his family are “in a really good place financially, emotionally and psychologically,” and were happy to come out of the protracted court battle relatively unscathed.
However, when pressed for specifics about what happened–and how the family’s situation had changed in the case’s aftermath, Chrisley went vague: “It is a business situation that occurred,” he said. “I had some friends involved that couldn’t meet obligations and I was not going to be stuck with $46 million dollars….We are very blessed to be where we are today…this show is not our main source of income.”
Concluded Chrisley, “It is what it is.”
So: what’s the answer to the Todd Chrisley net worth question? How much money is Todd Chrisley worth in 2016? Noted net worth tracker Celebrity Net Worth puts the figure at an underwhelming negative $5 million dollars, though it’s also important to point out that CNW only offers a brief summary of Todd Chrisley’s financial difficulties over the past few years, and cites no evidence to back up its claim. RichestLifestyle.com, by contrast, suggests that Todd Chrisley’s net worth is a rather more robust $5 million; again, though, it doesn’t tell readers how it arrived at that figure, and shares much of the same information that CNW has on offer.
One thing both sites have in common is a mention of Julie Chrisley’s independent wealth. The implication is that Julie was able to prop the family up during its leanest times, and that her wealth, separate from Todd’s, was insulated from any court seizures during the bankruptcy proceedings. CNW says the Julie Chrisley net worth question has a very simple answer: $3 million dollars. Whether or not that’s true, though, it seems unlikely that such a comparatively small nest egg could have sustained the entire Chrisley family until its patriarch got back on his feet. (Though it’s also worth pointing out that Chrisley Knows Best debuted right in the middle of the bankrupcy proceedings, meaning that Todd could count on some sweet USA Network dollars to tide him over.)
The matter of Julie Chrisley’s independent wealth gets a bit murkier, though, when you take into account the most popular Chrisley-related question of all: Is Todd Chrisley gay? If son Kyle Chrisley’s words are to be believed, not only is the answer to that question “Yes!”, but it’s Todd’s fortune that’s kept Julie with him for years. Though Julie and Todd had been married for eighteen years at the time that Kyle gave his infamous interview, according to him, “If the money wasn’t there, she would have been gone a long time ago.”
One thing we know for sure about Todd Chrisley’s source of income is that he’s a bona fide product placement junkie. A quick glance at Todd’s social media pages reveals a bevy of paid endorsements–and, as we know from the even-more-endorsement-happy Kardashian family, those plugs can result in payments of between five and six figures.
And there is the small matter of the expanding Chrisley Knows Best empire to consider. After Season Two of the show demonstrated a huge bump in ratings over Season One, USA doubled down on its Chrisley committments, putting both a late night talk show starring Todd Chrisley and a CKB spinoff into development. Though it’s been a little while since we’ve heard anything from those particular fronts, it’s believed that both shows remain a go–especially in light of the news that Chrisley Knows Best itself was just renewed for Season Four.
(Photo credits: Todd Chrisley net worth via Facebook)
