Todd Chrisley is opening up about one of his earliest money-making ventures– one that had the former ‘Chrisley Knows Best’ star working as an escort at the age of 18.
The 57-year-old disclosed the details of his gigolo past on the latest episode of Bunnie Xo’s ‘Dumb Blonde’ podcast, where he joked that his vibe as a male companion back in the day was “more like Richard Gere in American Gigolo” than Rob Schneider in Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo.
“I was an escort when I was 18 in Los Angeles,” Todd claimed. “I left South Carolina when I was 17.”
Todd went on to explain that he didn’t start out as an escort when he arrived in California in 1986, and that he was actually working as a waiter at the original Cheesecake Factory in Marina del Rey. It was there that Todd found himself waiting on a table of “six or seven women, good looking women” one night, where he went on to receive an $800 tip.
“ … I’m like, ‘Oh my God,’” Todd recalled. “Because here I was, coming from this little small Hooterville town in the rural area of South Carolina, thinking, ‘I have made it. I have f**king made it, I’ve got $800 bucks.”
After leaving the restaurant that night, Todd said he was approached by a man who was standing near a limousine. The man told Todd that his “lady” wanted to speak with him, noting that the “lady” in question was one of the women who Todd had waited on earlier that night. After agreeing to speak with the woman– who, according to Todd was 38-years-old– Todd approached the limousine and the woman rolled down her window before going on to offer him a ride home.
“Well, she didn’t drop me off,” Todd revealed. “Let’s just say that it turned into a very quick encounter that I’m thinking, as the sunroof was open, ‘I’m banging this woman as we’re driving through L.A., this is every dream I have ever had.’”
Following that post-Cheesecake Factory encounter, Todd said he and the woman began “seeing” each other regularly, noting that, “in [his] mind, [they] were actually dating.” It wasn’t until months later that he found out the woman was somebody’s wife.
“I remember eight months into this relationship, I was watching the Academy Awards and she walks the red carpet with her husband,” Todd recalled. “And I was so devastated. That’s how dumb I was at 18, I was so devastated … because I was thinking, ‘She’s cheating on me,’ cause I was that young and naive.”
When Todd went to confront the woman later that week, he asked about the man who’d accompanied her on the red carpet and, as he suspected, she confirmed that the man was her husband. When he proceeded to ask the woman why she never bothered telling him that she was married, the woman insisted that it was “not [his] business.”
“She said, ‘We have a great thing going, let’s not mess it up,’” Todd claimed. “And I said, ‘What do we have going on here?’ She said, ‘We have great sex,’ and from that moment on, I felt so ashamed … I don’t know that I felt used as much as I felt foolish, that here I was catching feelings for someone who, that was not what she was in this for.”
Despite the blow to his ego, Todd and the woman continued seeing each other for “another month or so” before their arrangement came to an end. Shortly after, he “fell back in the same rut” and began seeing someone else– a married woman who was in the middle of divorcing her husband, who played for the Denver Broncos.
“ … I ended up doing that, and then I end up going back to South Carolina just for like a week, end up screwing this girl who was at the country club, she got pregnant, I don’t know this until six weeks later,” Todd said, referring to his first wife, Teresa Terry, with whom he shares daughter Lindsie and son Kyle.
“She gets in touch with me, tells me that she’s pregnant and that if I don’t marry her, then she’s going to have an abortion,” he continued. “And I just couldn’t do that because I just did not believe in abortion, and for me, I felt like this is my child.”
Todd said he ultimately returned to South Carolina and got married, largely because his mom, “Nanny” Faye Chrisley, “shamed the hell out of [him].” (Todd and Teresa got married in 1990 and went on to divorce in 1996.)
“[She] told me that, you know, ‘You should not be having sex outside of marriage,’” Todd recalled. “I’m thinking, mama, I’m a hoe. That’s all you’re worried about, is me f**king some chick one time back here in the sticks, and I’m laying up getting my rent paid for.”
Todd claimed earlier in the episode that, while his dad was suspicious of his behavior during his short-lived gigolo era, neither one of his parents knew what he was up to at the time, nor did they know that the woman he was seeing was two decades his senior.
“[I] was embarrassed that I could not tell my mom and dad that I was sleeping with someone that was 20 years older than me, because I knew that my daddy was going to slap the sh*t out of me,” Todd said.
Interestingly, Todd and wife Julie’s 29-year-old daughter Savannah announced this week that she’s engaged and expecting her first child with Jason Galanis– a man 27 years older than her. As The Ashley previously told you, Jason also happened to be serving time in prison with Todd at FPC Pensacola before President Donald Trump commuted his sentence in March 2025. Two months later, Todd and Julie had their respective sentences commuted and were released from prison as well.
You can watch a clip from Todd and Julie’s interview on the ‘Dumb Blonde’ podcast below.
RELATED STORY: Savannah Chrisley Announces She’s Pregnant & Engaged to Jason Galanis– A Man Who Was in Prison with Her Dad Todd
(Photos: USA Network; Instagram)
I believe he was a hoe, but not with women.