Gypsy Rose Blanchard gained notoriety after she murdered her mother, Dee Dee. Throughout her life, Gypsy suffered from abuse by her mother, who claimed she had multiple illnesses.

Despite trying to escape several times, Gypsy was unable to break free until she made a plan with her boyfriend to kill her mother. However, the two were caught and subsequently imprisoned.

In recent years, Gypsy's story has been the focus of several documentary films and TV dramas.

Who is Gypsy Rose and what happened to her?

Gypsy Rose Blanchard grew up with her mother, Dee Dee Blanchard, making claims about her health that resulted in a series of dire diagnoses and medical interventions. However, Gypsy wasn't actually unwell — her mother had been lying about her symptoms. 

Experts believe Dee Dee's behavior stemmed from the mental disorder Munchausen syndrome by proxy; because Dee Dee wanted to be a caretaker, she feigned and induced illness in her daughter. The truth about Gypsy and her mother only came out after Gypsy arranged for an online boyfriend to murder Dee Dee in 2015.

Dee Dee began pretending that Gypsy had different illnesses when Gypsy was a baby

Dee Dee claimed that her daughter, Gypsy Rose, had sleep apnea when she was just a baby, having been born in 1991. As Gypsy reached the age of eight, Dee Dee began to describe her as suffering from leukemia and muscular dystrophy, stating that she needed a wheelchair and a feeding tube. Over time, Dee Dee continued to add to the list of medical issues that she attributed to Gypsy, including seizures, asthma, as well as hearing and visual impairments.

As a result of Dee Dee's actions, Gypsy was given numerous medications and required a breathing machine to sleep. Additionally, she underwent a series of surgeries, including procedures on her eyes and the removal of her salivary glands. At some point, Gypsy's teeth began to decay, possibly due to her medications, lack of salivary glands, or neglect, which led to their extraction.

Contrary to Dee Dee's claims, Gypsy was capable of walking, did not require a feeding tube, and was not suffering from cancer. Her baldness was a result of her mother shaving her head. Experts believe that Dee Dee suffered from a mental illness known as Munchausen syndrome by proxy, also called factitious disorder imposed on another, which drove her to invent her daughter's illnesses in order to gain attention and sympathy for being a caregiver to a sick child.

Dee Dee appeared to be a charming, devoted mother

Medical tests often yielded inconclusive or conflicting results regarding Gypsy's alleged medical conditions, but Dee Dee would refuse to continue seeing any doctors who doubted her daughter's illnesses. Many caregivers acquiesced to Dee Dee's demands. 

She had some nursing training, which enabled her to accurately describe symptoms, and she occasionally gave Gypsy medication to mimic certain medical conditions. Additionally, Dee Dee was charismatic and appeared to be wholly devoted to her daughter. 

As Gypsy grew older and began to talk, Dee Dee instructed her not to offer any information during their medical appointments - Dee Dee was always the one providing Gypsy's fabricated medical history.
Dee Dee informed Gypsy's father, Rod Blanchard, that their daughter suffered from a chromosomal disorder that caused her various health problems. 

Blanchard praised Dee Dee for her unwavering dedication to their daughter. However, when some members of Dee Dee's family began to notice that Gypsy did not require a wheelchair and began asking questions, Dee Dee and Gypsy relocated to another area.

In 2005, Dee Dee used Hurricane Katrina as a pretext to receive aid and relocate from Louisiana to Missouri with Gypsy. Once they arrived, Dee Dee continued to bring Gypsy to various medical appointments. Dee Dee also used the hurricane as an excuse for missing medical records.

Gypsy Rose Blanchard and her mother, Dee Dee

By 2008, Gypsy and Dee Dee had moved into a new house in Springfield, Missouri, which had been constructed by Habitat for Humanity. 

The house was painted pink and featured a wheelchair ramp. Gypsy and Dee Dee also received charitable benefits, such as sponsored trips to concerts and Disney World. Throughout it all, Dee Dee continued to revel in the attention she received as a doting caregiver.

When Gypsy was 14, she saw a neurologist in Missouri who came to believe she was a victim of Munchausen syndrome by proxy. However, this doctor never reported her case to the authorities. In later interviews, he stated his belief that there wasn't enough evidence to act. In 2009, an anonymous report was made to authorities stating that Dee Dee's accounts of Gypsy's ailments had no medical basis. This resulted in two caseworkers visiting their home, but Dee Dee convinced them there was nothing wrong.

As Gypsy grew older, Dee Dee began to lie about her age, going so far as to alter the dates on Gypsy's birth certificate to make her daughter seem younger. But Gypsy was still becoming harder for Dee Dee to control.
Gypsy convinced a man she met online to kill Dee Dee.

In 2011, Gypsy attempted to escape from her mother by fleeing with a man she had met at a science fiction convention. However, Dee Dee was able to locate them through mutual acquaintances. Although Gypsy was 19 years old at the time, Dee Dee convinced the man that Gypsy was still a minor. After they returned home, Gypsy claims that her mother smashed her computer and physically restrained her to her bed.

Gypsy has also asserted that her mother occasionally struck her and deprived her of food.

After regaining access to the internet, Gypsy joined a Christian dating website where she met Nicholas Godejohn. She confided in him about the truth of her mother's behavior and eventually asked him to murder Dee Dee so that they could be together. 

In June 2015, Godejohn arrived at their house and stabbed Dee Dee while Gypsy waited in the bathroom with her ears covered.

After the murder, Gypsy and Godejohn traveled to his home in Wisconsin, where they were eventually discovered by the police. At one point, Gypsy posted twice on the Facebook account she shared with her mother, with one post exclaiming, "That b***h is dead!" Later, she clarified that she made the posts because she wanted her mother's body to be found.

Gypsy was 'afraid' and believed she 'didn't have anyone to trust'

Following Dee Dee's murder, people who had known Gypsy were perplexed about why she had gone as far as to kill her own mother. Since Gypsy had the ability to walk, she could have easily exposed her mother's lies by standing up in public.

However, years of conditioning had led Gypsy to believe that no one would believe her, leaving her with no one to trust. In her own words, "I couldn't just jump out of the wheelchair because I was afraid and I didn't know what my mother would do. I didn't have anyone to trust."

Throughout her life, Gypsy was subjected to a great deal of control and surveillance by her mother. She wasn't allowed to attend school and her intelligence was portrayed as being much lower than it actually was, with Dee Dee falsely stating that Gypsy had a mental age of seven. When they were in public, Dee Dee would always hold Gypsy's hand tightly and squeeze it when she wanted her daughter to remain silent.

According to Dr. Marc Feldman, an authority on Munchausen syndrome by proxy, Gypsy's life was completely dominated and controlled by her mother in a way that is akin to a kidnapping victim. Her daughter was essentially held hostage, and her subsequent crime can be seen as an attempt to break free from captivity.

On June 2022, news broke Blanchard married a man named Ryan Scott Anderson, who is three years her senior and from Lake Charles, Louisiana. However, it was then reported they split up four months later.

Gypsy is 'not happy' that Dee Dee is dead

Gypsy's attorney used her medical records to demonstrate the abuse she had endured, which helped in negotiating a plea agreement for the charges against her in her mother's murder. In 2016, Gypsy pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was given a 10-year prison sentence. However, she will be considered for parole in 2024.

Meanwhile, Godejohn was convicted of first-degree murder in 2018 and was given a life sentence in prison.

Today Gypsy is healthy. She's also said she enjoys more freedom in prison than in the life she shared with Dee Dee. However, when asked by Dr. Phil if she was glad her mother was dead, she stated, "I’m glad that I’m out of that situation, but I’m not happy she’s dead." She is eligible for parole in 2024.