On Dec 28, 2023, Gypsy Rose Blanchard became a free woman following serving 8 years in prison for her involvement in the murder of her mother, Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard. Originally receiving a 10-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to second-degree murder, she was granted parole and released early. 

       Gypsy Rose was a victim of Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a mental illness where a caretaker or guardian lies about their child’s health conditions, even going as far as causing real symptoms in order to make the child look sick for attention. Dee Dee faked leukemia, muscular dystrophy, and epilepsy, to name a few. To portray this act, Gypsy used a wheelchair, ate through a feeding tube, and had her head shaved. 

       When commenting on Gypsy Rose to Biography.com, Dr. Marc Feldman, an expert in Munchausen syndrome by proxy, said “Her daughter was, in essence, a hostage, and I think we can understand the crime that occurred subsequently in terms of a hostage trying to gain escape.”

       Gypsy Rose met Nicholas Godejohn in 2012 on an online Christian dating website, without her mother’s knowledge. The two began a texting relationship, where she would eventually ask Godejohn to kill her mother so they could be together. In 2015, Godejohn came to Gypsy’s home and stabbed her mother to death while Gypsy hid in the bathroom. The pair fled to Godejohn’s home in Wisconsin but were caught after Gypsy posted on her mother’s Facebook account. 

       While Gypsy Rose received a 10-year prison sentence, Godejohn was convicted of first-degree murder and received a life sentence without the possibility of parole. 

       This case received wide media attention, resulting in HBO’s Mommy Dead and Dearest documentary, Hulu’s The Act, and Gypsy’s most recent docuseries The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard, where Gypsy tells her side of the story.