I’m sure you have heard of Gypsy Rose Blanchard by now, although you may not know all of the details. Blanchard was recently released from prison after serving over 8 years of her 10 year sentence. If you haven’t heard why she got arrested, let’s delve into who she is exactly.
Throughout her childhood, Gypsy’s mother Dee Dee Blanchard made extreme claims about Gypsy’s health. It is believed that Dee Dee had a mental disorder known as Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy, which is a disorder that causes a guardian to exaggerate or completely invent their child’s illnesses. This is what most likely caused her to do this. Dee Dee claimed that Gypsy had leukemia and muscular dystrophy, causing her to “need” a wheelchair and feeding tube. She also said Gypsy had seizures, asthma, and hearing, visual impairments, and more. As Gypsy grew older, Dee Dee would also alter Gypsy age by changing her birth certificate to make Gypsy appear younger.
Due to Dee Dee’s untrue claims about Gypsy’s health, Gypsy had to be put on numerous unnecessary medications and surgeries. Her mother was able to get away with this by lying to doctors and telling them that their medical records were destroyed in Hurricane Katrina.
Dee Dee also would physically abuse, and threaten Gypsy frequently. As Gypsy got older, she started noticing the wrong in things her mother was doing. For example, she knew she could walk, but she was forced to be in a wheelchair! This begs the question–where did Gypsy’s wrongdoings begin?
In 2012, Gypsy met a man named Nicholas Godejohn through an online dating app. She told him about the abuse she had faced from her mother, and how she had eventually come up with a plan for Nicholas to murder Dee Dee.
In June of 2015, Nicholas committed the murder. Gypsy sat in the bathroom, ears covered while Nicholas was stabbing her mother.
The two of them ran away, but were soon found by police. Nicholas was sentenced to life in prison, and Gypsy got sentenced to 10 years. After serving over 8 years, Gypsy was recently released early on December 28, 2023.
As soon as Gypsy was released, she received an incredible amount of fame over social media. People were idolizing her. She immediately made social media accounts, and was getting a lot of love, but of course some mixed opinions.
Over the next few weeks however, a number of people have started changing their mind about Gypsy. On social media, particularly TikTok, people have been saying things like Gypsy should not be rewarded for second degree murder, especially just after getting out of prison for over 8 years, and that becoming an influencer straight out of prison cannot be healthy.
To conclude, Gypsy has been through a terrible amount of extremely traumatizing events, but did commit a horrible crime in order to escape it. So, what do you think? Should Gypsy be rewarded, or disciplined for her actions?
