Prison-bound Todd Chrisley emphasized that his adopted daughter Chloe’s biological mother “surrendered her rights” to the 10-year-old and should not regain custody.
“It’s ironic that her biological mother would come forward now when she has not been in her life since 2015, and Angela Johnson surrendered her parental rights [in] March of 2017, and we never heard from her again,” Todd, 53, said in Wednesday’s episode of his “Chrisley Confessions” podcast.
The former “Chrisley Knows Best” star explained that he and his wife, Julie Chrisley, legally adopted Chloe, so it’s up to them to decide who gets custody of Chloe after they begin their collective 19-year prison sentences.
“We’re not going to discuss who that’s going to be because we don’t owe that to the world and that’s our private matters,” he continued. “At the end of the day, Chloe’s family is who Chloe has been raised with. Her life is going to be as unaltered as it possibly can be based on what Julie and I have the ability to control.”
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Todd continued to go off on Johnson for legally giving up her parental rights to the child, asserting that she “has no [more] rights to Chloe than a stranger on the street does.”
“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?’” Todd recalled, adding that Johnson denied in court that anyone promised her “anything financial” nor had “anyone threatened” her.
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“Just so the record is very, very clear: Angela Johnson has no rights to Chloe. Her rights were terminated. She has been legally adopted,” the reality TV star reiterated.
Todd claimed that prior to legally adopting Chloe, he and Julie, 49, bought several things for Johnson, including a condo, a Toyota Prius and tuition for nursing school, because he never wanted to tell Chloe that he “allowed her mother to be in the streets.”
“She was just using us for the money,” he alleged.
The Chrisleys legally adopted Chloe when Johnson allegedly lost the condo, failed to complete nursing school and did not “show up half the time” to pick up her daughter during their joint custody phase, according to Todd.
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“Angela terminated her rights voluntarily,” he noted. “She wasn’t threatened. She wasn’t coerced. … There is no truth to anything that she has said.”
Todd then directly addressed Johnson on the podcast and told her he is ready to provide any receipts necessary to protect Chloe.
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“What you need to do is understand that I have retained every text message, and so has Julie, with any communication that we’ve ever had with you,” he warned. “We have not released those, but if we need to, we will. That’s just drawing our line in the sand. You have had no relationship with Chloe. She does not have any relationship with you.”
Earlier this month, Johnson told TMZ that while she had “not filed any legal papers” yet, she intended to “go back to court to get Chloe back home.”
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Johnson and Kyle Chrisley, Todd’s son from his first marriage, welcomed their first and only child together in 2012. Todd and Julie initially shared joint custody with Johnson in 2014 amid Kyle’s struggles with addiction and bipolar disorder.
Todd and Julie eventually gained full custody and adopted Chloe in 2016, shortly after Johnson was arrested.
The Chrisleys have not directly addressed who will be Chloe’s new guardians once they go to prison for bank fraud and tax evasion. However, their 25-year-old daughter, Savannah Chrisley, previously claimed she would legally raise Chloe and her 16-year-old brother, Grayson.