Savannah Chrisley received a surprise phone call from her mom, Julie, just as she was talking about her on a podcast. The reality star was speaking with one of Julie’s former fellow inmates when the call came in.
She shared a video on her Instagram of her latest podcast episode. “Let me see if this is Mom,” Savannah said to Sharita Mona, holding up the phone to her ear. The Chrisley Knows Best alum shrieked when the operator said the call was from “Julie Chrisley.”
Savannah asked her mom if she was ok, and when Julie assured her that she was, her mom asked what she was doing. Savannah held out the phone to Mona, who said her name. “Who is that?” Julie asked.
“Sharita,” Savannah said.
“Oh my God!” Julie shrieked. They both laughed as Savannah explained that she was going to be on the podcast.
“I’m so happy. I love it. This makes me so happy,” Julie said over the phone.
“You called, and I looked down, and I was like, ‘Wait, it may be Mom, ‘” Savannah said. She told her mom that Mona flipped a house 10 days after she got out of prison. Julie was so happy for her and then the phone call ended.
“What are the chances of that?” Savannah asked before the video ended.
“‘It’s Mom on the phone!’ On this week’s episode of Unlocked, I sit down with Sharita Mona, who was incarcerated with my mom and saw firsthand the light she continues to shine—even behind bars. My mom may still be in federal prison, but she hasn’t lost her spark. She is strength, grace, and resilience personified. She truly is the greatest woman in the world, and not a day goes by that I don’t miss her with every piece of my heart. Tune in as we talk about the reality of life on the inside and the unbreakable spirit of my sweet mama! Love you forever, Mama. Time to get you home!” Savannah captioned the post.
“The fact she’s locked up and still completely giddy for the success of her daughter and Sharita speaks VOLUMES. I love this family I can’t help it 😭,” a follower of Savannah wrote on Instagram.
“Omgsh hearing mama Julie’s voice sent me!!! 😭❤️ we miss her so much!” said another.
“She’s not even my mama and hearing her voice was precious!” wrote another fan.
Mona served eight months alongside Julie in FMC Lexington in Kentucky. She opened up about meeting the reality TV star and how her personality changed over the time they spent together.
“She smiled, but you could tell she was in deep thought,” Mona said of when Julie first entered the prison. “She was thinking about getting where she had to go. A few people spoke to her, but she kept to herself; she was by herself and kinda just with herself. She was real quiet.” But, she said Julie opened up more once she settled in. She showed off her card skills, which resulted in Mona and the other inmates calling her a “card shark.”
“She was playing cards, and so she played cards with some girls I was friends with,” Mona explained. “And they said, ‘Oh, we gotta introduce you to Julie.’ And so we spoke, but they were, like, deep into their game.”
The women became close when they started working together in the prison. Julie encouraged Mona to go into real estate. Mona also said that Julie also spoke about her kids. “She’s worried about you all… she loves you all. You are her world,” she said.
Julie and her husband, Todd Chrisley, were convicted of bank and tax fraud in 2022 and sentenced to a combined 19 years in federal prison. The couple appealed their sentences; Todd’s request was denied, while Julie was granted a resentencing hearing. However, in September 2024, the judge upheld Julie’s original 84-month sentence at FMC Lexington.
This story originally appeared on TV Insider
