Gypsy Rose Blanchard has been a prisoner twice in her life, once as an inmate, and before that at the hands of her mother.
After serving over eight years behind bars, Gypsy is now ready to start fresh and experience freedom for the first time. But Gypsy, who was jailed for her role in the murder of her abusive mother, Clauddine (Dee Dee) Blanchard, felt she had to set the record straight about her past before she could step into her future.
In her new docuseries, The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard, the 32-year-old tells her own story, in her own words.
Gypsy’s case has become one of the most famous pop-culture criminal cases in recent history.
In childhood, Dee Dee convinced Gypsy and everyone else, including her doctors, that she had numerous chronic health problems, including leukemia, muscular dystrophy and brain damage. It’s believed Dee Dee suffered from Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a mental health disorder that involves a caregiver projecting diagnoses or inducing symptoms in a dependent.
At 23, Gypsy asked her then-boyfriend Nicholas Godejohn, whom she met online, to kill her mother. Godejohn fatally stabbed Dee Dee 17 times while she slept. He is serving life in prison for the 2015 murder.
Gypsy was released from prison on parole in December. While still an inmate, she married 37-year-old schoolteacher Ryan Anderson, whom she met as part of a pen pal program, in June 2022. Since her release, Ryan has travelled with Gypsy, helping her navigate day-to-day life while supporting her through a rigorous press tour.
Alongside her husband Ryan and The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard executive producer Melissa Moore, Gypsy gave Global News special insight into Dee Dee’s history of abuse, Gypsy’s life after prison and how she’s faring with her newfound fame.
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Global News: How does Gypsy see herself today, and how has her understanding of her own identity evolved over time?
Gypsy Rose Blanchard: I see myself today as someone trying to come out of prison and start her new life. I’m just trying to remake myself — reinvent myself into something that my family could be proud of. That my husband can be proud of. I think I’m getting there. I don’t think I’m quite there yet, but I’m liking this new version of myself.
Gypsy’s story has blanketed the media, and everyone from true crime bloggers to court TV anchors have dissected the case. Why was it important for Gypsy to make The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard?
Gypsy: I wanted to put out something that was very accurate. I wanted to put out something that was the truth. So much of what has already been put out there was either by people that, honestly, didn’t know the ins and outs of my case or my life. And ultimately, I’m the source — it happened to me. No one has the right, but me, to share my story. And that’s why it was important for me to do this docuseries, because I can finally be like, ‘OK, I’m ready. I am emotionally stable at this point.’ I don’t want to keep being haunted by the past. This series is me letting go of my past.
Did fictional accounts of your life create any misconceptions about your case?
Gypsy: The biggest misconception, honestly, didn’t even have to do with me. I haven’t watched many [fictional retellings], but I have watched at least two. And for me, it was how they portrayed my mom. I think people tend to forget — or maybe they don’t even know — that the reason why my mom was able to snow-blind the doctors so much, and the community, is because she was so friendly. In the shows, they’re portraying her as mean all of the time, and that’s not how she was. She was very charming, very relatable. She would give a hug to anyone. She liked to cook for people. Her personality was bubbly and friendly to the outside world. And then what you see behind closed doors is her hitting me, calling me names, and the abuse.
Gypsy mentioned in the docuseries that there are still some questions she has about her story that she needs closure on. What are those questions?
Gypsy: There are questions that I have about the surgeries that I’ve had. I haven’t had a chance to look at my medical records in full detail, and so I have a lot of questions as far as what I had done to me medically. Also questions for my family about things that happened before I was even born.
In the docuseries, there’s a number of times when family or professionals could have stepped in and removed Gypsy from her mother’s care. In your opinion, why did that never happen?
Gypsy: I think a big part of it was that there were people that had suspicions, family included, but nobody wants to rock the boat. It wasn’t brought up to other people. It wasn’t talked about. So, people kept their suspicions to themselves just for fear of upsetting my mom, and her ultimately pushing them away as friends or whatnot. On the professional standpoint, I think that for those doctors that did have suspicions, it all has to do with money, honestly. That’s my opinion about it. They were making money off of me, and so I think that in their profession, that that came first.
Melissa Moore: I remember, Gypsy, we had discussed that CPS [Child Protective Services] came to your house at one point. Tell us about that.
Gypsy: They did come to my house, and basically, they were asking me the wrong questions. They were like, ‘Show me your arms. Show me your legs.’ They were checking for bruises, and at that point, my mom never hit me. [With CPS] nothing was ever done. There was no follow-up report or anything. They came the one time and then they closed the file.
Melissa: After CPS came, I believe you were telling me your mom became more paranoid about strangers and put garbage bags over the windows, right?
Gypsy: She became increasingly more paranoid after that visit from CPS. She actually went as far as to remove the doorbell on the door because she was just so paranoid about them coming back.
Does Gypsy hold any grudges against her family members for not removing her from her mother?
Gypsy: My mother isolated me, and herself, from her side of the family, and my dad’s side of the family, at a pretty young age for me. I was probably about six years old when she started removing us a little more, and moving away from our hometown that we grew up in. I don’t hold anything against anyone. I don’t hold a grudge. I’ve actually told them all that. I’m like, ‘I don’t put blame on you guys because I was six years old when she took me from you guys, and I understand that you guys were just as much in the dark as everybody else was.’
I constantly drive that home that I do not hold a grudge against anyone. My mother was good at manipulating and lies, and that that’s all there is. There’s no blame to be put on anybody else. Not to me, anyways.
What has married life been like for Gypsy and Ryan?
Ryan Anderson: My life after [Gypsy’s] release has been a whirlwind. It’s been great. Everything’s moving so fast, but it’s been amazing. I’ve waited for this girl to come out for so long, and now she’s home. It feels great to have her here. The support we’ve been getting from people has been tremendous. I can’t thank people enough for everything. They love my wife just as much as I do.
What are Gypsy and Ryan most looking forward to now?
Ryan: There are many things I’m looking forward to in our new life. Just being a normal married couple. Yesterday, we went shopping, and it was great. We just walked into the store. We had two buggies. That was amazing. I wanted Gypsy to feel free to get whatever she wanted. And she got some stuff — it’s kind of funny — but she actually bought baby clothes for a future baby. And I was kind of like, ‘We’re not there yet! Slow down.’
Gypsy: It was so cute. I had to get the outfit for just in case, later down the road.
Ryan: When we walked in that section, I was like, ‘Keep walking. We’re not there yet.’ But it’s just little things like that I’m enjoying. Tonight, we plan on cooking again together, and we like doing that together.
How have Gypsy and Ryan been dealing with Gypsy’s sudden onset of fame?
Ryan: The most challenging thing is when people take comments out of context, and they run with it. People make TikTok videos about something that I might have said, and they took it the wrong way. Everything you say is under a microscope, and it’s one of those things I’m not used to. I’m just a southern boy from Louisiana, so that’s challenging to me. I just happened to fall into marrying the most beautiful woman in the world. I feel overwhelmed sometimes with everything they say. The most rewarding thing though, is just being with Gypsy.
Gypsy: And for me, I’m just coming out of prison for eight-and-a-half years, and everyone is well-aware of my story before that. I’m very new to social media and I’m on a learning curve right now. So, when I comment, or even like someone’s post, I have to realize that it will be seen by millions of people. It’s so many eyes on us right now and it is a little overwhelming. The rewarding side of that though is that I have this huge platform which I can use for good. It’s kind of like a superpower.
Why do you think Gen Z is obsessed with Gypsy on social media right now?
Gypsy: I’m coming into this brand new. I feel like I’m a new baby bird on the internet. I don’t even know how to do all of the emojis. I think they relate to me in a sense because I’m coming out and experiencing things for the first time. The things that I’m doing now, I should have been doing when I was like 16. I’m just doing it now for the first time. I think maybe I’m a little bit more relatable in that sense. We all feel the need to want to be loved and seen for who we are. I think that’s what the appeal about me is, that I’m learning about my identity while Gen Z is learning about theirs too.
Melissa: I also want to say that your case is probably one of the very first cases that made Gen Z really understand that the world isn’t a fair place. I think that’s why your case became so famous. For my generation, it was the OJ Simpson case. That was the trial of the century. I think your case was the equivalent to Gen Z because they were just coming to know the world. They saw for the first time that the world is unfair, and that you went to prison. A lot of Gen Z folks have come up to me and expressed that. Their interest in following Gypsy has to do with that the scale of justice did her wrong. They’re hoping that the scale of life does her right.
Before prison, Gypsy used to be interested in cosplay. Is that something she plans to continue now?
Gypsy: A little bit. Looking at old pictures of me wearing different costumes and stuff, even though the interest is there, I can’t help but have a small part of me that still feels like when I put on a costume, I’m put back in that time [before prison]. That’s just something that I’m going to have to work through with a therapist. I still have a lot of triggers that might be extremely subtle. That actually could potentially be one of them. That’s definitely not on the extreme side, but on the subtle side of the trauma that happened.
Ryan: She probably wore those cosplay outfits and costumes to get out of the current life she was living with her mother, so it was like an escape. I think she loves who she is now, as a woman, as a person.
Gypsy: I’m more confident now.
Ryan: When she puts on that costume, she’s escaping a good life that she has now, so she might not want to do it as much.
Gypsy: Even though I’ve got a major interest in cosplay and everything — it’s beautiful to look at — I don’t feel the need to change my identity, whereas I did before.
What does the future look like for Gypsy Rose Blanchard?
Gypsy: My personal goals right now are just to have a lot of family time and make amends with those that were really hurt by, not only the crime, but also learning that the people that they knew (meaning my mom and I before I got arrested) were not real. They weren’t real people. It was a fraud. We weren’t those people. So now coming out, I just want to make amends and show them who I am, and reintroduce myself to these people that I knew from before. Quality time with family, quality time with friends, learning how to cook, being a good wife, these are all personal goals for me right now.
Right now, my life is way too hectic for a 9 to 5. I think that I might get a little bored not having a day-to-day job, so I might want to have one. Right now, I’m not wanting one, and not wanting to take that on, but I think a couple months down the road, I just might. Career-wise, I might want to do people’s hair and makeup. I’m a total girly girl. I might want to do something in retail at a shop that I really like and enjoy. I also might get discounts, which would be cool.
I think professional-wise, I will always be Gypsy Blanchard to the media. But I think that I am putting the Gypsy Blanchard that people knew from several years ago in the past. The prison Gypsy is over. Now, this is the new Gypsy. I want to form this new identity for me and see what I can do, see the power of my voice. I’ve already used the power to share my story. Let’s see if I can share other people’s stories and give them a voice too.
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This interview has been edited and condensed.
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‘The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose’ is available to view on the Lifetime app until Feb. 6. The six-part docuseries will also re-air on the Lifetime channel on Jan. 12 beginning at 6 p.m. EST/PST and Jan. 14 beginning at 10 a.m. EST/PST.