Todd Chrisley clapped back at his granddaughter Chloe’s biological mother Angela Johnson during an episode of his podcast Chrisley Confessions, alongside his wife Julie, on Wednesday, December 14. Todd, 53, and Julie, 49, legally adopted Chloe, 10, in 2017. Angela has publicly made claims that she wants to regain custody of Chloe, who she had with Todd’s eldest son Kyle, but Todd clapped back at Angela’s efforts. “It’s ironic that her biological mother would come forward now, when she has not been in her life since 2015,” he said.
The Chrisley Knows Best stars had previously responded to Angela’s claims and their lawyer Jessica Doyle released a statement to People explaining that Chloe’s biological mom didn’t have a legal argument to make. Todd re-iterated what their attorney said. “Angela Johnson surrendered her parental rights in March of 2017, and we never heard from her again,” he said on the podcast. “Chloe was legally adopted by myself and by Julie, and she is legally our child, and we will be the ones who decide, if and when the time comes, as to who will be her caregiver.”
Later in his speech, Todd explained that if Angela had reservations about allowing Todd and Julie to become Chloe’s legal parents, she should’ve said so during the hearing. “Angela Johnson literally surrendered her rights to her child. She did this in front of a judge. The judge explained to her, ‘You understand what you’re doing, you understand that you’re surrendering the rights of your child,’ and then explained that she had X amount of days to come back in and rescind that. She asked her in that hearing that day, ‘Has anyone promised you anything financial? Has anyone threatened you?’ The answer to all of that is no, and that’s in writing, and it’s in a court document,” he said.
Todd proceeded to explain that he and Julie also offered housing, a car, and even money to attend nursing school for Chloe’s mother. He also alluded to his and Julie’s prison sentence for tax fraud. Even though he didn’t say so outright, he seemingly implied that even if they serve their sentence, he doesn’t plan to give up custody of Chloe. “Her life is going to be as unaltered as it possibly can be, based on what Julie and I have the ability to control,” he said. “Angela Johnson has no rights to Chloe. Her rights were terminated. She has been legally adopted. I have read some of the comments where people have said, ‘Sweetie, you waited 10 years too late.’ That is correct.”
Toward the end of his discussion about the drama on the podcast, Todd showed that he had faith that he and his family would be strong through the issue. “Chloe’s not going to Angela. Angela doesn’t have any rights to her,” he said. “At the end of the day, it is a situation that we are in that we never thought we would be in, but we continue to put our faith in our Lord and savior.”