Last year, Lindsie Chrisley revealed that she was being blackmailed with a sex tape she'd made with Robby Hayes.
Robby was not the blackmailer, but another potential victim. Now, he has opened up about what it was like to warn his mom of the brewing scandal.
Robby Hayes sat down with TooFab to recall this painful experience.
"We were made aware that there was a tape back in like 2018, late-2017," Robby shares.
"So I knew it was out there," he acknowledges.
"However, I thought, 'It's all gone away,'" Robby admits.
"And then all of her family stuff came up, and it came back," Robby recalls.
By "her family stuff," he refers to Todd Chrisley being investigated for tax evasion and bank fraud.
He unfortunately is also referring to Todd allegedly blackmailing Lindsie, his own daughter, with her own sex tape to force her to lie to investigators.
Robby characterizes his thoughts at the time: "So I was like, 'Oh, great, just when I thought I had calmed the storm.'"
Of course, the tape was never released. Thank goodness for small blessings, right?
Robby acknowledges that "nothing came of it."
However, he says that it was "one of those conversations" that he, as a reality star and public figure, had to have with his mother.
In fact, he recounts the conversation that he had with his mom to warn her of what might be coming out.
"'Mom,'" Robby recalled saying to his mother, "'this is probably coming out in the morning.'"
"'I'm sorry,'" he told her, "'but I wanted to give you the heads up so you weren't surprised.'"
"And then luckily, it didn't [come out]," Robby says.
As for his mother's reaction to his early warning, he recalls: "She just cried."
"'If it's not this, it's one thing after the next,'" he quotes his mother as having said to him.
He characterizes his reply to his mom: "I'm like, 'I'm sorry!' I mean, it's like out of my control."
Obviously, Robby had nothing for which to apologize.
Being the indirect victim of some monster's blackmail attempt is absolutely not his fault.
Robby shares that he and Lindsie still "speak often."
"We catch up here and there," he adds.
Robby then clarifies: "But the romantic stuff ended back in 2017."
Good for them for remaining friends despite being exes. Not everyone can manage that.
Todd Chrisley has vigorously denied that he teamed up with his son to obtain Lindsie's sex tape and then use it to blackmail her.
It would be a little shocking if he just straight-out confessed to his alleged crime of blackmail while he's still fighting the federal investigation against him.
People have said for a long time that Todd Chrisley is a terrible, awful person.No one is accusing him of being stupid.
Although, allegedly committing blackmail to force someone to help cover up another alleged crime is pretty dumb.
We are happy for Lindsie and for Robby that their sex tape was not released by "whoever" has it.
That is a serious violation of their personal rights to privacy.
Having a body, taking nudes, and recording a sex tape does not in any way make it the victim's fault if someone else gets a hold of the material.
Victim-blaming is a horror. Extortion is a horror. We wish Lindsie and Robby the best.
