News headlines everywhere have begun talking about Gypsy Rose Blanchard as she was recently released from the Chillicothe Correctional Center and reunited with her husband and family after eight years behind bars. Gypsy Rose is 32 years old now and her story stretches over her whole lifetime.
As a young girl, her father was never in the picture so she grew up with her mother, Dee Dee Blanchard in Springfield, Missouri. Gypsy and her mother were very close, although ever since birth Dee Dee had begun pretending Gypsy had different illnesses. Gypsy Rose was born in 1991 when Dee Dee began to claim she had sleep apnea. When Gypsy was eight, Dee Dee described her to friends and neighbors as suffering from leukemia and muscular dystrophy. Her mother also said she required a wheelchair and feeding tube. This is a life-changing fake diagnosis for Gypsy which still has effects on her today. The list of medical problems that Gypsy accumulated went on and on including seizures, asthma, hearing issues and visual impairments. Although many doctors questioned Dee Dee they did nothing other than prescribe Gypsy more prescriptions. At night, Dee Dee would sleep right beside her and Gypsy had to sleep using a breathing machine. She also went into numerous surgeries including procedures on her eyes and the removal of her salivary glands. Gypsy’s teeth began to rot from the medications and the missing salivary glands. Dee Dee decided it was best to just pull them all out.
Yet, the truth was Gypsy didn’t have cancer, she could walk and eat normally. Her head was only bald because her mother shaved her hair every time it started to grow. Doctors believe that Dee Dee had a mental illness known as Munchausen syndrome by proxy. This made Dee Dee fake her daughter’s illnesses with the hopes of receiving attention and sympathy for taking care of a sick child. From the outside, people saw Dee Dee as a loving mother just trying to take care of her kid but on the inside, it was a selfish act. Gypsys saw many doctors throughout the years, every time a doctor would disagree with Dee Dee they would move on to the next. Once Gypsy was old enough to speak for herself, her mother would insist that Gypsy not to during her appointments.
When Gypsy was 14, she visited a new doctor who believed she was a victim of Munchausen syndrome by proxy. Even though the doctor suspected it, he never reported it to authorities because he claimed that there wasn’t enough evidence. In 2009, an anonymous report was made stating that Gypsy’s diagnosis was not medical-based. This resulted in two caseworkers visiting their home and questioning Gypsy. Dee Dee went all the way to lie about her birth date and tried to change it on her birth certificate. She wanted Gypsy to be younger than 18 so that Dee Dee could still make all of her medical decisions. In 2011, Gypsy met a man at a science fiction convention. She later tried to get away from her mother by running away with him. Mutual friends helped lead Dee Dee back to Gypsy. Dee Dee was furious, in an interview, Gypsy said that she smashed her computer and physically restrained her to her bed once they arrived home. After some time, Gypsy got back online and joined a Christian dating site where she met Nicholas Godejhon. She told him about all the things her mother had done and in 2015, he came to her house and stabbed Dee Dee.
After Dee Dee’s death many people such as neighbors and friends, questioned why Gypsy went to the extreme that she did. They wondered why she didn’t just stand in public to show everyone the lies that Dee Dee had told people. Gypsys claims that she was too afraid of what her mother would do to her if she got out of the wheelchair. Dee Dee had always claimed that Gypsy had a mental age of seven years old.
Gypsy’s lawyer was able to get her medical records and arrange a plea deal with the judge on the charges that were made for Dee Dee’s death. In 2016, Gypsy pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. She served 85% of her sentence before being released on December 28, 2023. While she was in prison, Ryan Scott Anderson wrote her a letter in 2020. They communicated off and on with numerous visits and got married at the jail on July 21, 2022. After being released, she moved in with her husband in Springfield, Missouri where she currently lives. She is now 32 and is happy and healthy.
