Gypsy Rose Blanchard gives interview on eve of prison release
Gypsy Rose Blanchard, Set to Be Freed From Prison, Regrets Murdering Mother: 'She Didn’t Deserve That' (Exclusive) https://t.co/hmO0jacofS
- People (@people) December 27, 2023
On Thursday, December 28, Gypsy Rose Blanchard will be released on parole from Missouri's Chillicothe Correctional Center, eight years after accepting a plea bargain to the second-degree murder of her mother Clauddine "Dee Dee" Blanchard.
Dee Dee's murder, and the events preceding it, have been the subject of great interest in the media. (It is widely believed that Gypsy, now 32, was a victim of Munchausen by proxy.) The subject of Mommie Dead and Dearest, a 2017 HBO documentary by Erin Lee Carr, it was also notably dramatized in the 2019 Hulu miniseries The Act, based on a Buzzfeed article about the case.
Now, with both her freedom and a new Lifetime docuseries (The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard, premiering January 5) visible on the horizon, Gypsy exclusively tells People that she hopes her story will serve as a cautionary tale. "I want to make sure that people in abusive relationships do not resort to murder. It may seem like every avenue is closed off but there is always another way."
• On her supposed medical conditions: "I knew that I could walk and didn't need a feeding tube, but everything else was a really big confusion for me. Whenever I'd question [my epilepsy diagnosis] my mother would say I'd had a seizure the night before and didn't remember. There was always an excuse."
• On Dee Dee's abuse: "She'd call me things like bitch, whore, slut. It was very similar to a domestic violence type of relationship. As long as you're complacent everything's fine. Put your foot down, then it's bad."
• On asking then-boyfriend Nicholas "Nick" Godejohn to murder Dee Dee*: "I just wasn't having it [another needless procedure, this time on her larynx, and fled her home]. She found me, brought me back and put in place paperwork saying I was incompetent and she had power of attorney over me. That's when there was a conversation between me Nick. He said 'I would do anything to protect you.' I said, 'Anything?' He said 'Yes.'"
• On regret: "[My mother] 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 behavior.
"Nobody will ever hear me say I'm glad she's dead or I'm proud of what I did. I regret it every single day."
Click to view* Godejohn was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
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