NBC NEWS
Gypsy Rose Blanchard, the child abuse victim who was convicted of killing her mother, will be released early from prison to start 2024 as a free woman.
Blanchard, 32, has been granted parole and will be released from the Chillicothe Correctional Center in Chillicothe, Missouri, on Dec. 28, three years before her original release date, a spokesperson for the Missouri Department of Corrections confirmed in an email to TODAY.
In 2016, Blanchard was sentenced to 10 years in prison for her role in the murder of her mother, Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard, who was stabbed to death the year before by Gypsy Rose Blanchard’s then-boyfriend Nicholas Godejohn.
Gypsy Rose Blanchard is believed to have been a victim of Munchhausen syndrome by proxy, a psychological disorder in which a caretaker makes someone ill or creates the illusion of them being ill in order to receive attention, the Springfield News-Leader reported.
On the stand, Gypsy Rose Blanchard described how her mother took her to doctors throughout her life to treat her for various conditions, including leukemia and muscular dystrophy, that she never actually had.
Gypsy Rose Blanchard detailed how her mother forced her to use both a wheelchair and an oxygen tank although she required neither, according to the Springfield News-Leader.
In a televised interview with Dr. Phil McGraw in 2017, Blanchard expressed her regret over her mother’s death.
“I have to pray to forgive my mother, but right now the hardest thing is to forgive myself,” she said.
The bizarre case also inspired several documentaries and a limited series on Hulu starring Joey King and Patricia Arquette.
During her time in prison, Blanchard reportedly married a man named Ryan Scott Anderson in 2022, the Springfield News-Leader reported at the time, but she has not publicly spoken about it.
She also has written a book that will be published in January called “Released: Conversations on the Eve of Freedom.”
Her stepmother, Kristy Blanchard, told NewsNation that the family is looking forward to belatedly celebrating Christmas with Gypsy Rose Blanchard after she is released.
Here’s what to know about Gypsy Rose Blanchard’s case.
