Gypsy Rose Blanchard was released from prison on December 28, 2023, after serving seven years of a 10-year sentence in the Chillicothe Correctional Center located in Missouri. She pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in July 2015 for the death of her mother, Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard. 

  Gypsy was a victim of her mother’s Munchausen syndrome by proxy, which is a mental illness and form of child abuse where a caregiver makes up or causes symptoms of illness in their child so they can appear sick to garner sympathy for themselves. 

  Throughout Gypsy’s childhood, her mother made her and the public believe that Gypsy was suffering from various serious illnesses such as leukemia, epilepsy, asthma, and muscular dystrophy. Dee Dee made Gypsy take various medications and have countless surgeries in order to mimic the symptoms of the illnesses. She said Gypsy required a wheelchair and feeding tube, and she shaved off her hair consistently to enhance the image of her having cancer. Dee Dee was able to convince many people that Gypsy was terminally ill, largely due to the fact that she claimed her medical records were lost in Hurricane Katrina.   Millbrook junior Nadeen Elkassem said, “I’m so surprised Dee Dee was able to get away with it for so long. It’s crazy how she manipulated people into believing what she told them about Gypsy even though she didn’t have much proof.”

  Things changed in October of 2012 when Gypsy Rose met Nicholas Godejohn on an online Christian dating website. The two began a relationship and met in person in March 2015, when Gypsy was 23 and Godejohn was 25. Soon after, they began planning to kill Dee Dee Blanchard. Gypsy stated she believed that murder was the only certain way to escape her mother, but she was too squeamish to complete the act herself. 

  On June 9, 2015, Dee Dee was found stabbed to death in her and Gypsy’s Springfield home. Days later, Gypsy and Godejohn were taken into custody. Godejohn was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole after first pleading not guilty. Gypsy pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. 

  Many forms of media have covered Gypsy Rose Blanchard’s story so far, including documentaries like HBO’s “Mommy Dead and Dearest” and Hulu’s television series “The Act” which stars Joey King and Patricia Arquette. However, Blanchard is looking to take control of her own story, and she created a Lifetime six-episode docuseries titled “Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard” which released January 5, just days after she was released from prison. 

  Many people have taken to the internet to express their support for Gypsy, and she has already amassed 8 million Instagram followers after posting about her release on December 29, 2024. Gypsy also got married in July of 2022 during her time being incarcerated. She and Ryan Scott Anderson began exchanging letters in 2020 and fell in love. Their relationship has been a hot topic on social media.   Millbrook freshman Ally Burman shared her thoughts on Gypsy’s release, “I’m so glad that Gypsy is finally free, from both her mother and prison. I can’t begin to imagine how she felt in those 25 years, all of that pain. She and her husband are so cute and she looks so happy now, before she looked absolutely miserable. I hope the world treats her well.”

Gypsy Rose Blanchard is now sharing many more details about her life in her new book, “RELEASED,” as well as her docuseries “The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard”.