At the age of 49, Teresa Terry has been divorced for almost 25 years from her first husband, reality television celebrity Todd Chrisley, famously known for Chrisley. The marriage was short-lived, just seven years, but the dissolution proceedings were full of emotion and legal fireworks.
Where Did Todd Chrisley Meet His First Wife, Teresa
Teresa Terry met Todd Chrisley for the first time when she was only seventeen, and he was nineteen.
At the time, Teresa was a high school senior in a public school in Westminster, South Caroline. Shortly after their first encounter, the couple started dating each other. Speaking about their early dating period, Teresa said:
“It was all very southern, very laid back, eating meals with the 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.”
Teresa consumed a lot of time with Todd’s family as it was the hangout destination for the couple and their friends after school and on weekends. The family evermore embraced them warmly, and Todd’s mother, Faye, even used to cook for them.
Teresa’s Unplanned Pregnancy Examined the Intensity of their Relationship
Teresa had to deal with a premature pregnancy problem at the young age of 19. Life launched a curveball at her when she became pregnant with her first child with her then-boyfriend, Todd Chrisley.
According to Teresa, after the unplanned pregnancy news, Todd was not exactly happy with the revelation. And both of them determined that it was only right if they got married. Teresa later revealed:
“Most likely, we wouldn’t have gotten married if I hadn’t been pregnant, but we did and it was a big deal.”
The couple embraced their first daughter, Lindsie, on September 17, 1989. After fifteen months, Teresa went on to have another child with Todd Chrisley. The couple embraced their son, Kyle, on August 29, 1991.
Teresa’s Rocky Relationship with Todd was never meant to last forever.
To call the married life between Teresa and Todd Chrisley bad would presumably be an understatement.
While initially restricted by the responsibility of being new parents, the couple’s earlier days were somewhat happy. Teresa said that at first, she discovered it exhilarating to move from one house to another.
With her husband, Todd, who had an extraordinary amount of talent in interior designing, she would also help to look over the homes and properties the couple would be renovating.
According to Teresa, Todd was a power freak in terms of anything regarding the refurbishment process.
However, a marriage that only lived in the first place due to an unplanned pregnancy could only go so far. The same personality demanded perfection in Todd’s professional career and began to show signs in his marriage with Teresa. As time went by, Todd frequently grew more controlling over Teresa.
In one of her interviews with the Daily Mail, Teresa revealed:
“There were times when Todd would scream uncontrollably at me for no apparent reason – only to change the tact and give me the silent treatment for days and days.”
He was said to have given a set of directions to her on how to present herself, behave, and even raise their children.
She said, “I like to put 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.”
She also added:
“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.”
Todd’s Domestic Violence
While it was psychologically exhausting to keep up with all the ruling demands of her husband Todd, she was also being subjected to physical abuse during the later period of their seven-year-long marriage.
In November 1994, Teresa filed a domestic violence case against Todd and shortly after left his house. Regarding the same, Terry recalled one terrible night of December 1992, when Todd, who was intoxicated, supposedly destroyed her personal property and ‘battered his mother’ and Teresa.
She also alleged that around October 1994, Todd battered her while she was driving until she pulled over and ran away.
At one time, when she went back to collect some of her belongings, he allegedly ‘stripped her off of her jewelry’. And even threw her out of her marital home until he became tired of taking care of their children.
In the case against Todd, Teresa went on to say that he allegedly used a knife and threatened to kill her. She also detailed another night three days later, when he allegedly ‘tore all her clothes, including her undergarments from her body and battered her with his closed fists’.
Following the altercation, she fled to a neighbor’s house and only left when Todd finally left their shared home.
Teresa and Todd Chrisley Divorce
With her life transforming into a living nightmare, Teresa could only think of leaving the house that she shared with her husband and children.
She took her then three-year-old son Kyle with her. Likewise, she had planned to raise her five-year-old daughter, who was staying with her paternal grandparents at that time.
“I don’t remember why Lindsie was there but when I went to get her he wouldn’t let me have her,” she said. On November 8, 1994, Teresa filed a criminal complaint against Todd alleging the ‘unlawful abduction’.
She Has Two Kids With Tom: Lindsie and Kyle
While Teresa has stayed away from the public, her children with Todd would become reality tv stars through the show ‘Chrisley Knows Best’.
Her eldest daughter Lindsie had arrived in five seasons of the show and had an on-again and off-again relationship with Will Campbell. The couple has a son Jackson.
Her youngest son with Todd, Kyle is an improving addict with bipolar disorder.
He also arrived in the first season of the reality TV show but stopped after getting involved with drugs again. He reportedly announced in 2019 that he was decent again.
Where is Teresa Now?
After the divorce from Todd, she met another man and had two beautiful children with him. As of now, she is said to be living in Oklahoma with her husband and children, away from the spotlight that consistently surrounds her ex-husband.
While she has always said that she does not regret being married to Todd as she had two exceptional children to call her own, knowing her story, we can only hope that the rest of her life would be filled with happy memories.
