Gypsy Rose Blanchard has 'forgiven' her mum after prison release over her murder

03 January 2024 , 11:56

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Gypsy Rose Blanchard went through a long process of healing while in prison (Image: Gypsy Rose Blanchard)

Gypsy Rose Blanchard says she is managing to forgive both her mother and herself after being released from prison for the murder of her abusive parent who made her life hell.

Blanchard, 32, was released on December 28 after nearly eight years behind bars for her involvement in planning the murder of her mother, Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard. In June 2015, Blanchard convinced her then- boyfriend Nick Godejohn to kill Dee Dee in her sleep, in a final bid to be free of her mother.

Throughout Blanchard’s childhood, Dee Dee forced her to pretend she was suffering from various illnesses, including muscular dystrophy, leukaemia, and an entire host of other health problems. Blanchard was forced to unnecessarily use a wheelchair, have her head shaved, and throughout her childhood was told she was years younger than she really was.

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Blanchard is experiencing her first tastes of real freedom (@gypsyroseblanchard727/TikTok)

She says she doesn't believe her mother was evil (@gypsyroseblanchard727/TikTok)

It drove Blanchard to the most extreme of measures, before she was caught by police and sentenced to 10 years in prison after accepting a plea deal which accounted for the abuse she had endured. But while in prison, it was a long road to coming to terms with what she had done and the nature of her childhood.

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Blanchard said she was “really angry” with her mum and “very confused” at the time of her death. “But I understand that she had a lot of mental issues. And so I think that’s brought me to a place of forgiveness by just trying to understand where she was coming from. I don’t believe that she was evil,” she added.

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She enjoyed a welcome home party with family when she was released (Instagram)

Unfortunately she couldn't go to the Kansas City Chiefs game for which she had tickets (instagram/@gypsyrose_a_blanchard)

Dee Dee suffered what is known as Munchausen’s syndrome by proxy, a psychological disorder leading in which a carer will fake the illnesses of the person they look after in a bid to gain attention, sympathy, or for some other reason. “I know that she was very sick,” Blanchard added.

Blanchard was even forced to use a feeding tube without any need for it during her childhood, and wishes now that she had taken different steps in ending the torture. She added: “I wish I could go back and tell my younger self, ‘Call your dad. Reach out for help with people because they will actually believe you’. The main reason why I didn’t is because I really felt like nobody would believe me whenever I said that things just weren't right at home.”

Blanchard was sentenced over the murder of her own mother (Crime+Investigation)

It wasn’t so easy for Blanchard to phone her father because Dee Dee prevented them from having much of a relationship or anyone else, for fear that it would reveal the truth about her health. For people to believe that Blanchard was severely ill was crucial in enabling the pair to receive charitable donations, including even a home from Habitat for Humanity.

So Blanchard took a fatal way out of her lifestyle and supplied a knife to Godejohn, before letting him into the home and hiding in the bathroom as he stabbed Dee Dee to death, Godejohn was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

She is spending her first proper alone time with her new husband Ryan (Instagram/ Gypsy Rose Blanchard)

But her imprisonment has allowed Blanchard to undergo a proper education which she lacked due to her home-schooled life, including basic maths. She has found friends, and even married a man who she first met after he wrote her a letter while she was inside.

Ryan Scott Anderson, 37, who Blanchard describes as a “teddy bear”, married Blanchard while she was still in prison last summer. Now that she is free, they are spending their first weeks and nights together - and she has now been properly getting to know her father.

“This is what I’ve been wanting for so long,” she said of spending time with her new family. . “But it’s an adjustment. But it’s a wonderful adjustment.” Blanchard says that this is her first ever taste of “actual, real, full-fledged freedom”.

Alex Croft