Gypsy Rose Blanchard has shared her first selfie following her release from prison, after pleading guilty in 2016 to the second-degree murder of her mother, Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard.
The 32-year-old took to Instagram on 29 December to share the mirror selfie, one day after her release from Chillicothe Correctional Center in Missouri. Blanchard had served 85 per cent of her sentence, eight years after confessing that she and her online boyfriend - Nicholas Godejohn - plotted to kill her mother.
Following Blanchard’s arrest, an investigation found that she was abused by her mother Dee Dee, who forced her to pretend she was disabled since childhood.
In the new mirror selfie, Blanchard could be seen posing in a pair of jeans and an ombre blue and white long-sleeved shirt, as she smiled for the camera. She appeared to have taken the picture in a hotel room, as two of her suitcases were opened on the floor.
She commemorated the new picture in the caption, writing: “First selfie of freedom!”
Back in 2015, Godejohn stabbed Dee Dee at least 17 times at her home in Springfield, Missouri, as Blanchard hid in a bathroom during the assault. Following the assault, Godejohn and Blanchard reportedly stole money from Dee Dee, before travelling to Wisconsin by bus.
After authorities were alerted of a post on Dee Dee’s Facebook page - which read, “That B*** is dead!” - her body was found on 14 June 2015. While Blanchard’s community was initially concerned about her disappearance, Blanchard and Godejohn were later arrested and charged with murder.
Blanchard pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 2016, while Godejohn was eventually found guilty and sentenced to life in prison for murder and 25 years for armed criminal action.
Until the age of 24, Blanchard was psychologically and physically abused by her mother, who forced her to pretend she was disabled. Dee Dee reportedly had Munchausen syndrome by proxy, forcing her daughter to pass herself off as chronically ill. In the aftermath of Blanchard’s arrest, her neighbours told the media that she always used a wheelchair and that Dee Dee had claimed her daughter had leukaemia, muscular dystrophy, and several other chronic conditions.
Investigations later determined that Dee Dee may have made up the claims to obtain financial gain and sympathy. Among those claims, Dee Dee had also alleged that she and her daughter were victims of Hurricane Katrina and were displaced by the disaster in 2005. As a result, the charity Habitat for Humanity built a small home with a wheelchair ramp in Springfield for the Blanchards.
In a 2019 interview with ABC News, Blanchard said that she realised her mother was lying about many of her conditions. She also claimed that her mother forced her to take medication that she didn’t need, with some of the medication causing her teeth to fall out “There are certain illnesses that I know I didn’t have, I know I didn’t need the feeding tube,” Blanchard said. “I knew that I could eat and I knew that I could walk, but I believed my mother when she said I had leukaemia.”
In a recent interview with People published on the day of her release, Blanchard opened up about what’s next in her future. She told the outlet that she’s remaining focused on her loved ones, including her husband Ryan Scott Anderson - a special education teacher she met in 2020 after he sent her letters while in prison. In July 2022, the couple tied the knot during a small ceremony at the Missouri correctional facility.
"My husband Ryan has been an emotional backbone for the last three years,” she said. “We met when the pandemic was really, really strong and I had a lot of emotional ups and downs because of Covid.”
Blanchard noted that following her release, she and her husband are planning on starting a family of their own. However, she discussed some of the difficult conversations she may have with her children about DeDe one day.
“We’re in love,” she said, before adding: “It’s hard because I’m going into a new life and I’m newly married, and I’m going to have kids one day, and I’m going to have to explain to my kids why their grandmother on mommy’s side isn’t around. And that’s going to be a really hard conversation.”
Weeks before her release from prison, Blanchard told TMZ that she wants to meet pop star Taylor Swift. She revealed that she and her husband have tickets for the Kansas City Chiefs game at Arrowhead Stadium on 31 December, in hopes of seeing NFL star Travis Kelce’s girlfriend there. Swift has made multiple appearances at his games since September.
