Gypsy Rose Blanchard Opens Up on Struggle to Understand Mom's Munchausen by Proxy: 'Not Consciously Malicious' (Exclusive)
Gypsy Rose Blanchard was granted parole in September after serving eight years for her role in the murder of her mother, Dee Dee Blanchard
Courtesy ABC News
Gypsy Rose BlanchardGypsy Rose Blanchard is opening up about her mother’s Munchausen by proxy, which led the woman to abuse Gypsy for years.
In an interview with PEOPLE, Gypsy said she is still “really, really trying to come to a place of forgiveness for her, for myself and the situation.”
Gypsy's mother Dee Dee subjected Gypsy to unnecessary medical treatments and convinced her daughter and others that the now 32-year-old had a litany of illnesses as a child. In court, it was argued Gypsy was a victim of Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a form of child abuse that involves a guardian exaggerating or inducing illness to gain sympathy.
“It's a journey, but I'm starting to feel more forgiveness in understanding that it is something that maybe was out of her control,” Gypsy told PEOPLE. “Maybe it was like an addict with an impulse, and that it was not consciously malicious. And I think that helps me with coping and accepting what happened.”
Courtesy Blanchard Family
Dee and GypsyGypsy, whose story is featured in Lifetime’s The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard, airing on January 5, 6 and 7th at 8pm ET/PT, spoke to PEOPLE prior to her release last week from Chillicothe Correctional Center in Missouri. She served more than eight years in prison after plotting to murder Dee Dee, with then-boyfriend Nicholas "Nick" Godejohn. The man, who Gypsy met online, went through with the plan — stabbing Dee Dee to death — while Gypsy hid in the bathroom of her home.
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Related: Gypsy Rose Blanchard Seen for 1st Time Since Early Prison Release
Speaking about her mother's Munchausen, Gypsy said, “I really feel like it was something psychological, that if she could have gotten therapy — she was diagnosed with bipolar and schizophrenia when she was a little younger, and so she was not taking medication for that."
Gypsy added, "And so perhaps, if maybe she was on her meds, maybe things would've been different. But I can't focus on the 'could have, shoulda have, would've,' because I'll get too deep into that rabbit hole. But I think that's why it's so important for me now, to take what has happened and the choice that I made to commit murder was never the right choice.”
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Gypsy said her mother didn’t “deserve” her ultimate fate.
"She was a sick woman, and unfortunately I wasn't educated enough to see that,” she said. “She deserved to be where I am, sitting in prison doing time for criminal behavior.”
Following the stabbing death of Dee Dee, Gypsy pleaded guilty in 2016 and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Godejohn, 32, was sentenced to life in prison without parole in 2019 following his trial conviction for first-degree murder, the Springfield News-Leader, KY3 and KOAM reported at the time.
Gypsy married Ryan Scott Anderson, a Louisiana special education teacher, behind bars last year.
If you suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org. All calls are toll-free and confidential. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages.
The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard, a six-hour special offering unprecedented access to the most popular victim of Munchausen by Proxy, premieres Jan. 5 on Lifetime at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
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