The Release of Gypsy Rose Blanchard

By Emily Yeomans

December 28, 2023 marks Gypsy Rose Blanchard’s awaited release from prison after fulfilling eight years of her ten year sentence. Gypsy Rose is a former victim of Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a mental illness that provokes a caretaker (in Gypsy Rose’s case, her mother) to force the appearance of illnesses on those dependent on them. This abuse eventually led to Blanchard taking a drastic course of action to gain her freedom. 

Gypsy Rose and her ex-boyfriend, Nicholas Godejohn, were convicted for respectively planning and executing the murder of Blanchard’s mother, Dee Dee. Gypsy Rose and her mother’s strained relationship was a result of the unnecessary procedures and treatments that Gypsy Rose was subjected to. According to PEOPLE magazine, Dee Dee claimed that Gypsy Rose suffered from illnesses such as muscular dystrophy, leukemia, and epilepsy. She successfully convinced friends and family that these health complications were valid, and managed to manipulate doctors into diagnosing them to legitimize them by claiming Gypsy Rose’s health records were destroyed in Hurricane Katrina. Alongside having her head shaved, Gypsy Rose was forced to use a wheelchair, feeding tube, and oxygen tank. Gypsy Rose was isolated, with, in her mind, no way out except for the extreme. She stated, “I started to feel like it was either her or me.”  

As the date of yet another unnecessary surgery approached, this time to be performed on Blanchard’s larynx, she chose to flee. Eventually unsuccessful in her escape attempt, she was brought home by her mother, who then chained Gypsy Rose to a bed. Gypsy Rose admitted that her relationship with her mother was “very similar to a domestic violence type of relationship…[a]s long as you’re complacent everything’s fine. Put your foot down, then it’s bad.” As a result, Gypsy Rose plotted with her current boyfriend, Nicholas Godejohn, to murder her mother. 

Choosing a knife as the murder weapon, Godejohn stabbed Dee Dee in her own bedroom, putting an end to Gypsy Rose’s physical and emotional abuse. At Godejohn’s trial, Blanchard spoke, claiming that she had “talked him into it,” and that she “wanted to be free of [her mother’s] hold on [her].” After the stabbing, Blanchard logged onto her mother’s Facebook account, announcing her mother’s death to the world. She was convicted in 2016 and given a sentence of 10 years. 

Gypsy Rose, now 32 years old, is released on parole. She is married to Ryan Scott Anderson, holds a strong social media presence through her Instagram and TikTok accounts, and has many goals for the future. She hopes to become an advocate for children under abuse, stating that she “wants to make sure that people in abusive relationships do not resort to murder,” and that her mother did not deserve to die. Gypsy Rose, in addition, hopes to publish a book later this year to tell her story, finding new purpose through what she has endured.