Gypsy Rose Blanchard is sharing her joy and gratitude following her release from prison in her first video appearance since being freed.
Gypsy spent eight years behind bars for her role in the murder of her abusive mother, Clauddine (Dee Dee) Blanchard, who convinced Gypsy she had numerous chronic health problems throughout her childhood, 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 still behind bars for the 2015 murder.
On Dec. 28, Gypsy walked out of prison. The now 32-year-old was granted parole and released three years early.
“Hey everyone, this is Gypsy,” she said in a video posted Sunday to her Instagram page. “I’m finally free!”
She said the reason for the video was to “thank everyone for the massive amount of support that I’ve been getting on social media.”
The video has garnered over two million likes, a testament to the intense interest that Gypsy’s story has generated online. Social media was abuzz in the days leading up to her prison release, with many observers eagerly awaiting her liberation, despite Gypsy’s criminal actions.
“Everyone has been really, really nice and supportive and I really appreciate that,” Gypsy added in the video, filmed outside on a porch. “It’s nice to be home in Louisiana enjoying a beautiful day outside.”
Gypsy also mentioned that a Lifetime docuseries about her life is set to air soon. The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard is scheduled to premiere on Jan. 5. An autobiographical e-book is also coming soon. Released: Conversations on the Eve of Freedom will be published by Penguin Random House on Jan. 9.
Gypsy said she’s “super proud” of the book and described it, not as a “re-hashing” of her life story, but a “reflection of everything that I have learned and experienced in the last eight-and-a-half years.”
In a follow-up video, Gypsy wished her followers a happy New Year’s Eve and shared that she was celebrating the holidays with her family, while flashing her wedding ring.
“I have my dad and my step-mom Kristy here, and, of course, my husband — so we’re looking to ring in the new year together,” she said. “It’s going to be really awesome to have some family time after so long.”
Gypsy married her husband Ryan Anderson, a special education teacher, in June 2022 while still in prison. They began corresponding after he sent her a letter in 2020, Anderson told People.
On Dec. 29, the 32-year-old posted her “first selfie of freedom,” a day after being let out from prison. The post has been liked over six million times as of Tuesday.
According to media reports, Gypsy was ordered to leave the state soon after she was released from Chillicothe Correctional Centre in Missouri and had to miss out on watching Sunday’s NFL game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Cincinnati Bengals.
Gypsy had previously told TMZ that she and her husband purchased tickets to the game in the hopes of meeting Taylor Swift, who has appeared at a number of recent Chiefs games cheering on her boyfriend, Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce.
It’s unclear why Gypsy was asked to leave Missouri.
Gypsy has said that she hopes her story serves as a cautionary tale for other abuse victims.
“I want to make sure that people in abusive relationships do not resort to murder,” she told People in a jailhouse interview. “It may seem like every avenue is closed off but there is always another way. Do anything, but don’t take this course of action.”
“Nobody will ever hear me say I’m glad (my mother is) dead or I’m proud of what I did. I regret it every single day,” Gypsy added. “She didn’t deserve that. 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 behaviour.”
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