Gypsy Rose Blanchard has been released from prison after serving seven years for the murder of her mother, Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard, who allegedly abused her throughout her childhood.
Gypsy, 32, was released from the Chillicothe Correctional Center on Thursday, December 28, at 3:30 am local time, the Missouri Department of Corrections confirmed to ABC News.
Gypsy and her then-boyfriend, Nicholas Godejohn, were arrested in 2015 after Dee Dee was found dead from multiple stab wounds in her Springfield home. She was 48.
Gypsy, who planned the crime with Godejohn, 34, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2016. She was granted parole in September.
Godejohn, who admitted to killing Dee Dee, was convicted of first-degree murder in 2018 and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Dee Dee’s murder and her alleged abuse of Gypsy were documented in the 2017 HBO documentary Mommy Dead and Dearest and the 2019 Hulu miniseries The Act, in which Joey King portrayed Gypsy. Patrica Arquette won an Emmy for her portrayal of Dee Dee in the series.
Dee Dee allegedly abused Gypsy for years by convincing her and the public that she was very ill when she wasn’t. Gypsy grew up believing she suffered from conditions including leukemia, muscular dystrophy, brain damage, seizures, and vision and hearing impairments. She underwent multiple surgeries that were later deemed unnecessary and used a wheelchair and a feeding tube.
During a 2020 appearance on ABC News’ 20/20, Gypsy claimed that her mother became more controlling as she got older.
“She physically chained me to the bed and put bells on the doors and told … anybody that I probably would’ve trusted that I was going through a phase and to tell her if I was doing anything behind her back,” she said.
After Gypsy met Godejohn online, her mother “got jealous because I was spending a little too much attention on him,” she claimed. “She had ordered me to stay away from him.”
Now that Gypsy is out of prison, she hopes her story can be of service. In February 2021, she penned a letter to the Springfield News-Leader expressing her intention to write a book in the hopes of helping victims of child abuse.
“This will be my never-ending life goal,” she wrote.
Gypsy also hopes to have some fun with her newfound freedom. Last month, she told TMZ that she and her husband, Ryan Scott Anderson, whom she married in 2022 while behind bars, have tickets to the December 31 Kansas City Chiefs Game.
She also revealed her hopes of running into Taylor Swift, who began dating Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce earlier this year, at the game. Gypsy told the outlet that she also plans to buy tickets to Swift’s October 2024 tour stop in New Orleans and is determined to meet the singer, whom she called a “kick-ass chick.”
