What’s happened to Teresa Terry, 25 years after divorce from Todd Chrisley?
Teresa Terry, at 49, has been divorced for almost 25 years from her first husband, reality television star Todd Chrisley, better known for Chrisley Knows Best. The marriage was short-lived, just seven years, but the proceedings to dissolve was full of drama and legal fireworks.
In the years since 1996 when the divorce was finalized, there’s been a contrast in the public visibility of the two erstwhile lovebirds. While Todd Chrisley continues to hug the limelight, putting his life, business and family in front of hundreds of thousands of viewers of his reality show, Teresa Terry has become more or less a recluse, forever avoiding the klieglights of public scrutiny.
Apart from an exclusive interview she granted to the Daily Mail about six years ago, Teresa Terry has operated under the radar unlike her ex-husband Todd Chrisley.
So, it has been almost a quarter of a century since she went through that bitter divorce and, people ask what has been happening in the life of Teresa Terry?
Here’s what we know of Teresa Terry’s story and how she’s been living her life since 1996 when her marriage to Todd Chrisley ended.
Getting married
Teresa Terry met Todd while they were still high school students in Westminster, South Carolina. Todd’s family home was a social hub where friends would hang out after school and at weekends. Chrisley’s mother, Faye, cooked for them all.
Teresa revealed, ‘It was all very southern, very laid back, eating meals with family that sort of thing. Todd and I would go to the movies, hang out. He was never one for big crowds. He always belonged somewhere else. He carried himself different. He always wanted to wear the latest fashions, most of the people we went to school with were happy to wear T-shirts and jeans. He wanted to get his clothes at Neiman Marcus. His parents were just regular middle-class people. I don’t know where it came from but I guess he just always wanted something different. I don’t think that’s necessarily a bad thing.’
Though Teresa Terry and Todd Chrisley got involved as high school sweethearts, however they got married not necessarily out of love but out of duty. When Teresa became pregnant with Todd’s first child, Lindsie, at the age of 19, though Chrisley, then 21, was not thrilled but he did what both thought was the right thing and proposed. According to Teresa, they got married because they both thought it was the right thing to do.
Teresa revealed, “Most likely, we wouldn’t have married if I hadn’t been pregnant, but we did and it was a big deal.”
Living with Todd Chrisley
Chrisley is depicted as a control freak. In an interview with Daily Mail, Teresa said this trait ended up poisoning their relationship as Todd would inundate her with instructions on how to present herself, how to behave, and how to raise children.
“I like to put on a ball cap, put my hair in a ponytail and go out. But with him your hair always had to be fixed and you had to be dressed to the tens. I grew tired of being constantly corrected and I would run my mouth. Sometimes I think he doesn’t realize the way he is. He’s so used to being controlling and vindictive that he doesn’t even see it anymore,” she said.
Soon enough, Teresa claimed, the emotional manipulation turned to physical abuse. She alleged he once tore off her clothes and beat her up with his closed fist and also threatened to kill her with a knife.
Cracks became a gully as their marriage experienced turmoil with Teresa filing a domestic abuse complaint in November 1994 and then moved out of the family home. Teresa claimed that Todd then hired a private investigator who tracked her down in her new city of Atlanta, Ga. And they spent years battling over child custody.
15 months after giving birth to Lindsie, Teresa and Todd welcomed their son, Kyle. But the relationship was irrevocably deteriorating. During their seven years together, Teresa claimed they separated multiple times until, finally pushed over the edge, she filed a domestic violence complaint and moved out of the marital home, this time for good.
Litany of abuses
– In one case, Terry alleged that in December 1992, ‘while intoxicated,’ Todd Chrisley destroyed her personal property ‘and battered his mother’ and Teresa.
– She claimed that on or about October 21, 1994, he ‘battered’ her while she was driving until she pulled over and ran away.
– When she went home to pick up some belongings, she claimed he ‘stripped her of all her jewelry’ and threw her out of the marital home ‘until he was tired of caring for the children.’
– She claimed that on November 2, he ‘wielded a knife threatening to kill her’ and that she fled to a neighbour’s home until she felt safe that Chrisley had left their still shared property.
– Three days later, she claimed he ‘tore all of her clothes, including her undergarments, from her body and battered her using his closed fist.’
When Teresa finally left the marital home, she took Kyle, then three years old, and intended to collect five-year-old Lindsie who was with Chrisley’s parents at the time. She said, ‘I don’t remember why Lindsie was there but when I went to get her he wouldn’t let me have her.’
Teresa filed a criminal complaint against Todd alleging the ‘unlawful abduction’ on November 8, 1994. Todd and Teressa spent years battling over child custody — which Teresa says left her unable to maintain a meaningful relationship with Lindsie.
The incident is also documented in court papers seen by MailOnline. Todd went after his ex-wife again in 2012 and sued her for $1 million in child support. He lost the case.
Teresa’s love life after divorce
The divorce was not finalized until 1996, with each side fighting for full custody of the children and after much to and fro, Teresa dropped the domestic violence case. In his testimony, Chrisley – who was accused of deliberately evading court officers who attempted to serve him – denied every allegation and maintained that he had never been physically violent to his wife or mother. Chrisley and Teresa were finally granted joint physical and legal custody.
Teresa moved into a gated community in Atlanta with her new partner and children. But, she said, Chrisley hired a private detective to track her down. According to Teresa, she was at home one night when she noticed a red laser trained on the house and saw Chrisley standing in front of the property.
Apparently, love-scorned Todd was not ready to give up his ex-wife without a fight. ‘I really thought I was fixing to get shot,’ she said. But then she realised he was filming her, not lining up a shot. Then her initial relief gave way to anger and shock. But worse was to come.
She said, ‘He sent the footage to a television special on cheating wives. The first I knew of it was when my parents called because they’d seen it on TV. You just cannot imagine how vindictive he can be.’
It is a trait, she said, she has witnessed again and again, often played out through wrangles over custody of their children.
Todd Chrisley’s love life after divorce
Chris lives happily with Julie Chrisley whom he married shortly after his first failed marriage. The reality couple walked down the aisle in 1996, one month after his divorce from Teresa was finalized.
Julie was nine months pregnant with their son, Chase, at the time. The Georgian real estate tycoon shares three children – Chase Chrisley (born 1997), Savannah Chrisley (born 1998) and Grayson Chrisley (born 2006) – with Julie who is also his business partner and a popular face in the Chrisley Know TV series.
Where is Teresa Terry now?
Few years after the divorce of Teresa and Terry, she married another guy and had two children for him. Although she stated that she never regretted getting married to Todd. “It’s been a wild ride I’ll tell you that. But I don’t regret marrying Todd because I sure don’t regret my children,” Teresa said.
As of now, Teresa and her current spouse reside in rural Oklahoma along with their children. She is living her life away from the limelight, and it is even difficult to find current Teresa Terry pictures online.
Though Teresa Terry is known as the first wife of Todd Chrisley, but after reading her life story and all about the struggles she has gone through courtesy of Todd Chrisley, it is safe to say that the title she is mostly associated with, ‘Todd Chrisley first wife’, is one that she might like to shed off.
