Savannah Chrisley Opens Up About Family Struggles and Ex-Fiancé's Sudden Death

By Emma Chance | Celebrity | October 11, 2023 |

By Emma Chance | Celebrity | October 11, 2023 |

Savannah Chrisley of Chrisley Knows Best is having a rough year. With her parents still in prison for fraud, her former fiancé, Nic Kerdiles, died in a motorcycle crash last month at the age of 29. The two were together on and off for six years before parting ways in 2020.

Chrisley posted a heartfelt memorium on her Instagram following Kerdiles’s death.

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A post shared by Savannah Faith Chrisley (@savannahchrisley)

“You left such a mark on this world and it’s so empty without you…It is impossible to believe that you are really gone. I am not sure how to even absorb that news, I don’t know how to react. I am so sad and so numb. I don’t want to believe it…I keep texting your phone and just hope you respond,” the caption reads. She also posted an Instagram story in which she wrote, “Please send me a sign that you’re ok…”

She confirmed to Entertainment Tonight that he did just that. “Nic’s given me some signs,” she said. “I just know that he would want everyone to live life to the fullest, because that’s exactly what he did. He’s just an amazing human being.”

She addressed the tragedy on her podcast, Unlocked with Savannah Chrisley, this way:

“Nic and I were in each other’s lives for six years, we were engaged and there were so many great memories and at the end of the day, Nic made a huge impact on my life and he left such a mark on this world…If his passing teaches us anything, I think it’s to love and love hard, and to treat people with so much love and kindness, because that’s exactly what he did.”

Kerdiles’s sudden death occurred while Chrisley’s participation on Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test is airing.

“In life, I’ve realized that you learn the most in the midst of your trauma,” she said on this week’s episode, reflecting on her parents’ combined prison sentence. She failed the first challenge put to her in the episode, and then said, “It doesn’t matter how much judgment the D.S. puts on me,” referring to the former special forces operatives who administer the training on the show, “Because I don’t believe it will ever be to the amount of judgment that I place on myself.”

“My head’s just not in it,” she said to her co-stars. When her parents reported to prison, she gained custody of her younger siblings, so she feared for their wellbeing while she was gone. “I think this whole thing has probably taught me, I’m softer than I lead on to be, you know?” she said.

“Looks a bit vacant, a little bit fragile,” the D.S. said of her performance, but they agreed she’d done well up to that point, and so they brought her in for individual questioning, where she admitted that she wanted to do the show because it was the last thing she’d watched with her parents before they left for prison, and her mother had told her she thought could do it. Chrisley looked dejected as the D.S. attempted to build up her confidence, praising her for being a “mother and a father” to her siblings, and “modeling” good character to them. She ultimately quit the show before attempting the second challenge of the episode, a backward dive off a floating platform, into a body of water, in the dark.

“I’m not going to put myself in a position where I know I’m not mentally there,” she said before being sent away.

I don’t think her quitting diminishes her effort. I watched Chrisley Knows Best back in the day, not religiously, but enough to formulate an opinion about Savannah. I found her to be materialistic and shallow. Lately, though, she’s proven me wrong. She’s stepped up in her parents’ absence, and leaving Special Forces to be with her siblings—so they can have some kind of parental figure around—only further proves her strength.