The Munchausen by proxy victim who was just released from prison for her role in the murder of her mother in 2015 was made to believe she suffered from many illnesses as a child, leading to several unnecessary procedures.
Gypsy Rose Blanchard is enjoying life as a free and married woman, but she still suffers some of the after-effects of a child made to believe she suffered a whole slew of serious illnesses by her mother Dee Dee.
The Munchausen by proxy victim — now known as Factitious disorder imposed on another — was released from prison for her role in Dee Dee’s 2015 death on Thursday morning and greeted by her husband Ryan Scott Anderson and a camera crew for her upcoming Lifetime docuseries, The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard.
ABC
Gypsy Rose Blanchard, Husband Ryan Scott Anderson Reveal Unexpected Way They First Met
View Story
Ahead of the new series’ January 5 premiere, Gypsy opened up to People about which of the several unnecessary surgeries and procedures she had to endure was the most painful — and how it impacts her to this day.
Along with spending a lot of time in hospitals and visiting various doctors throughout her childhood, Gypsy was forced to use a wheelchair even though she could walk and had her head shaved as Dee Dee claimed she suffered from leukemia. Her mother also claimed she had the mental capacity of a seven-year-old child.
But through it all, Gypsy says it was the removal of two salivary glands behind her neck that was the worst. She said it was because she “didn’t respond very well to the anesthesia,” which made her recovery “really, really hard.”
It’s also left her with a seemingly permanent affectation that she believes “annoys people to no end,” but can’t seem to stop. “To this day,” she explained, “it has left me with the side effects of having to clear my throat all the time. So I’m always, if you hear me, that is a constant thing that I’ve had ever since.”
Courtesy of the Blanchard Family/Lifetime
Gypsy Rose Blanchard Speaks Out Ahead of Prison Release, Says She ‘Regrets’ Mother’s Murder ‘Every Single Day’
View Story
As for how Dee Dee convinced doctors the surgery was necessary, Gypsy says her mother “put [Orajel] on my gums to make me drool at the appointment and complain[ed] to the doctor that [I drool] too much.”
As shown on the harrowing Hulu 2019 docudrama The Act based on her story, Gypsy said that when she would ask her mother if all of these procedures were necessary, “she would get really, really upset with me and start manipulating me in a way that she would take her love from me.”
Gypsy said that her teenage years were a “roller coaster” of emotions with Dee Dee, with much of it depending on whether or not she was going along with her mother.
“In the submissive moment, things would be really good, and we would do things together that we would find fun,” said Gypsy, talking about trips to the zoo, hanging out around town together and bonding. But things took a turn when she was feeling “a little bit more rebellious” and would “question the sickness.”
“That would be really, really toxic,” Gypsy said. “I tried my best to be respectful, but sometimes it was very hard, so I would raise my voice, too. But she would call me things like b—h, w—e, s–t, devil-spawn. So all these terms really, really took an emotional and a mental toll on me.”
ID
DNA Testing Reveals Alleged Age of Orphan Accused of Being an Adult In New Special
View Story
At 23 years old, though her mother often claimed she was much younger with a doctored birth certificate, Gypsy plotted her mother’s murder with then-boyfriend Nicholas “Nick” Godejohn. Gypsy was given ten years in prison after pleading guilty to second-degree murder, while Nick received a life sentence.
Ahead of her release, Gypsy told People, she was “desperate to get out of that situation” and “just wasn’t having it” when her mother allegedly scheduled an operation on her larynx. Feeling she had no other options, Godejohn, she says, told her, “I would do anything to protect you.”
“I said, ‘Anything?’ He said ‘Yes,'” she claimed, before he then stabbed her mother 17 times, killing her.
“She didn’t deserve that,” says Blanchard now. “She was a sick woman and unfortunately I wasn’t educated enough to see that. She deserved to be where I am, sitting in prison doing time for criminal behavior.”
Blanchard also told the outlet that “Nobody will ever hear me say I’m glad she’s dead or I’m proud of what I did,” adding, “I regret it every single day.”
Since her release, Gypsy has picked up an impressive 4.8 million Instagram followers, and nearly 1.5 million TikTok followers, per TMZ. She’s shared a few selfies, some loved-up images with her husband and some shots from her release party.
Gypsy will start to share her own story with the six-hour Lifetime docuseries The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose on Lifetime from January 5-7 at 8pm ET.
