Savannah Chrisley is coming clean about her dating life. After keen-eyed fans speculated that she was dating rising country singer Nate Smith when they were spotted in public together earlier this year, she admitted the rumors were true while being interviewed by her friend Erin Dugan on the May 9 episode of her Unlocked With Savannah Chrisley podcast. Specifically, the 25-year-old Chrisley Knows Best star revealed she and the “Whiskey On You” hitmaker had been “talking [and] hanging out” by the time he appeared on the Jan. 3 episode of her podcast, and their romance continued “for several months.”
And although Savannah had nothing but good things to say about Nate, calling him “literally the best”, she said their romance ended due to scheduling conflicts and their diverse obligations. Nate is currently touring as he promotes his self-titled, major-label debut album, and Savannah is busy raising her 16-year-old brother, Grayson, and 10-year-old niece, Chloe, of whom she was given custody as their guardians, Todd and Julie Chrisley, serve their respective sentences in prisonfor tax evasion. “I think it was really hard because there were ways that we connected, so great. But then also, it’s so hard for anyone to understand the level of trauma that’s going on in my life right now,” she explained. “And also his career, like we said, is freakin’ taking off. I mean, playing sold-out stadium tours. It’s crazy! No one deserves the success more than he does.”
“But what comes along with that is he needs someone who’s going to be able to go to those things and enjoy them with him,” Savannah continued. “There’s no way for me to do it without feeling guilty for leaving the kids, so I have to figure out what a healthy balance is going to be of being able to have a personal life while having the kids and everything else involved.”
Recalling their time together, she said they had “so much fun … the best time ever.” She remembered their visit to Jimmy Fallon in New York City together and the first night they went out in public together. That night, they sang karaoke with a bunch of friends. “That, I think, is such a bittersweet thing that I’m still trying to work through in my mind is maybe it was the right person but terrible timing,” she explained about the situation. “We’re both capable of being friends with each other, and just him living out his career, me living out mine, my family stuff, everything involved. So it’s been a challenge.”
Savannah also said she is the one who wanted to keep the relationship private and “sacred”, but she previously confessed to “dating someone” while speaking to Kaitlyn Bristowe on the Mar. 14 episode of her podcast, Off The Vine with Kaitlyn Bristowe. Savannah was previously engaged to NHL player Nic Kerdiles, but they ended their relationship in 2020.
As for the “trauma” Savannah mentioned, she has been open about the fact that it’s not easy becoming a mother figure to a teen boy and a little girl so suddenly. “I come home Tuesday, and I have custody of a 16-year-old and a 10-year-old, and we spend our first Thanksgiving not as a family,” Savannah said on the Nov. 21, 2022 episode of Unlocked. “[I”m] trying to navigate how you teach two younger children who aren’t fully developed yet and … get them to understand the circumstances,” she noted.
In January, she opened up further about what her home dynamic is now like. “I’m definitely put in a really unique situation right now because I’m having to guide Chloe and Grayson through this process. Trying to stand strong and not break and be strong for them so that they feel comfortable enough to break down. Grayson is 16 years old, there’s so much growth going on with him right now and it breaks my heart to know that my parents are missing out on that,” she said on her podcast.
“I don’t feel adequate enough for this job because I am not my mother, because she is the kindest, most amazing person I have met,” she continued, becoming emotional as she spoke. “And I always said, if I was half of her, I would be OK. And I guess in moments like these, I guess I’m more like my mom than I realize, because I’m getting through it.”