Gypsy Rose says she would still be abused if her mother were alive

Gypsy Rose Blanchard says the first time she tasted freedom wasn't last week, when she got out of prison — after serving eight and a half years for helping murder her abusive mother. According to her, the first time she experienced freedom was when she was arrested.

“For me, coming to prison was an opportunity to start a life for myself in terms of gaining independence from everyone,” she said in an interview with CNN on Thursday (4), before the premiere of the Lifetime documentary series, “The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard.”

The young woman’s story has already inspired series and documentaries such as “The Act”, on Prime Video, “Mamãe Morta e Querida”, on HBO Max, “Gypsy: A Life of Lies”, on Apple TV+, and the film “Escape”, on Netflix.

“Being able to do simple things like making friends for the first time, going out in the sun, enjoying a day with friends, spending time with other people my age,” he added. “It was definitely more freedom than I’ve ever felt before in my life living with my mom.”

After being paroled last week, Blanchard, at 32, is finally feeling true freedom.

The young woman became the object of tabloid fascination after her mother, Dee Dee Blanchard, was found stabbed to death in 2015 in her home near Springfield, Missouri, in the USA.

A disturbing Facebook post from Dee Dee's account alerted authorities to the crime, and as more details emerged, investigators uncovered a complex web of abuse, lies and tragedies.

Gypsy Rose spent her childhood and early adulthood believing she suffered from a number of serious illnesses, including leukemia, muscular dystrophy, and asthma. In fact, her mother had Munchausen syndrome, a rare syndrome in which a caregiver fakes or exaggerates someone's illness to attract attention or sympathy.

For years, Dee Dee falsely convinced doctors, community members, and even her own daughter that she was seriously ill. She kept Gypsy Rose in a wheelchair even though she could walk, subjected her to countless unnecessary surgeries and isolated her from the world, according to her daughter's accounts in media interviews.

The environment was so unbearable that Gypsy Rose said she saw no other way out than to get rid of her mother.

In what she describes as an act of desperation, the young woman convinced her then-boyfriend, Nicholas Godejohn, to kill her mother while she slept. She pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 2016, and prosecutors sentenced her to 10 years in a plea deal given the unique circumstances of the case.

Godejohn was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He admitted to stabbing Dee Dee and said he only killed her because Gypsy asked him to, according to court records.

Court documents also show that Gypsy Rose was home at the time of the murder and did nothing to stop it. But she said she doesn't think she could have killed her mother if she had to do it alone.

“I don’t have it in my heart. If people knew me, they would know that I can’t even kill a fly,” she said. “It’s just not in my nature to be violent.”

She continued: “I think it's really important for people to understand that I've reached a breaking point. As I am, as an individual, I could never kill anyone.”

Gypsy Rose also said she believes she would still be abused if her mother were alive today. It's possible that someone would have realized what her mother did to her, but probably not before her body succumbed to all the medications and unnecessary surgeries her mother imposed, she added.

“I think if my mom was still here, I would still be under this medical abuse that I was going through,” she said. “I don’t think there would be an end in sight for me.”

Now that she has had years to reflect on her choices, Gypsy Rose said she realizes there were other options than killing her mother.

But she feels the system failed her: At the time, she felt trapped, like her life would never change as long as she was in her mother's care.

“I realize that there are resources and things that are put in place to protect children from going through what I went through,” she added. “Unfortunately, all of these failed me.”

Even after everything she suffered at her mother's hands, she is forgiving her. If Gypsy could talk to her mother today, she said she would apologize.

“She was not a bad woman. She wasn't a monster. She was just a sick woman and needed a lot of mental health care,” she said. “I see who she is now, or who she was.”

But now the young woman is ready to move on.

And she has plenty to keep her busy: in addition to being newly married to Ryan Anderson, a man she met and fell in love with and engaged to while in prison, and reuniting with her family, she is promoting the new Lifetime documentary which portrays his story and his book “Released: Conversations on the Eve of Freedom”, scheduled for publication on January 9th.

According to Gypsy Rose, she intends to use the recognition she gained to prevent other people from going through similar situations.

“I’m going to do my best to really do right by anyone who has gone through what I went through,” she said.