Savannah Chrisley Reveals Mom Julie Chrisley’s Cancer Scare in Prison

Julie Chrisley suffered a serious health scare behind bars. The 51-year-old Chrisley Knows Best star, who is serving a reduced five-year prison sentence for financial crimes in conjunction with husband Todd Chrisley’s 10-year sentence, shared a story of her recent hardship through a letter read on daughter Savannah Chrisley’s Unlocked podcast.

In the letter, dated Feb. 2, 2023, Julie revealed that she was called in to see the prison doctor, where she learned that she may have a tumor after some bloodwork came back with elevated levels of human chorionic gonadotropin. “I walked in thinking it was gynecology. I sat down with the doctor and she proceeds to tell me that my HCG level was high – 10.2. This is a pregnancy hormone. It should not be that high. If it were a little higher, I would test positive on a pregnancy test. Since that’s not a possibility, it could be a sign of a tumor,” Julie wrote.

“I literally fell apart,” she continued. “How can this be happening? I’m going to have bloodwork redone and get a scan. I’ve not told anyone and I’m not going to until I know what’s going on. I’m so scared. I just want my husband. I don’t know if I can do this without him.” 

Julie noted that elevated HCG levels may also indicate a hernia, but her health scare had Savannah looking back on her mother’s 2012 breast cancer diagnosis. After her initial diagnosis, Julie underwent a double mastectomy, which was followed up the next year with a hysterectomy. Julie then revealed after her two surgeries that she was officially in remission from cancer.

After reading her mother’s letter from prison, Savannah said, “This right here is a perfect example of the lack of health care that you receive in the system and how they’re not the most educated doctors that work for the [Bureau of Prisons].” She continued, “They tell your family absolutely nothing. I wasn’t notified of any of this. They don’t care. If my mom were to go to the hospital I would not know. And to think of her sitting there worrying about, ‘Oh, my God. My cancer may be back…’ “

Another letter Savannah read included Julie’s recollection of going to get her flu shot in prison and having her request to have her blood pressure checked denied. “I’m worth more to my family dead than I am alive,” Julie wrote, sparking an emotional reaction from her daughter.

“As her daughter reading these things, first off, Mom suffers from high blood pressure really, really bad,” Savannah said. “All she wanted was her blood pressure checked and they wouldn’t even do that. And to hear your mother say she’s worth more dead than alive is probably the most heartbreaking thing anyone could ever hear. I know that my mother has made such an impact on so many people’s lives and that’s worth more than anything else.”