Gypsy Rose Blanchard is trending on social media, and it has everyone talking about her story. On June 15, 2015, Rose Blanchard was arrested for participating in the act of killing her mother, Dee Dee Blanchard. While she did not commit the crime herself, her online boyfriend, Nicholas Godejohn, did.
Rose Blanchard’s childhood was traumatic because her mom had Munchausen Syndrome by proxy. This is a mental illness where the person is caring for someone and acts like they are ill when they aren’t, according to the Cleveland Clinic. Rose Blanchard thought she was sick for the majority of her childhood. With a desperate need of an escape, Rose Blanchard committed her crime in hopes of better days to come. After 23 years of suffering, she couldn’t take it any longer.
The couple believed that killing her mother would allow them to live a normal life. The couple got caught and were arrested. While Godejohn is still serving his life sentence, Gypsy was released on Dec. 28, according to the Today Show.
“It’s crazy to me how she got out because she was so sheltered,” junior Carlie Franz said. “But I think it’s really cool that she found her strength to stand up to her own mom and get out.”
Not only was she brave enough to get out of her home life situation, but she was also brave enough to open up to the world about it, which can take a lot of guts especially when talking about something so personal. It is also fascinating that she was able to talk about her situation and not care about what her haters had to say about it.
“I honestly think really just the most interesting part is Gypsy just speaking out about it,” sophomore Elyssa Coursey said. “And I also think that her fame is also really interesting because so many people have been through similar situations and nobody kinda like caught the [public] eye as much as she did.”
In 2019, Hulu released a show based on Rose Blanchard’s childhood called The Act. The Act is a show that stars Joey King as Gypsy Rose. While watching, viewers can expect to see everything her brutal childhood entailed, ranging from outrageous doctor’s appointments to an unnecessary feeding tube her mom thought she needed.
“I’ve watched [the show] and I think that it’s really good, I really liked it,” Franz said.
A couple of years after the show, she was released from confinement on Dec. 28, 2023. Rose Blanchard is continuing to live a happy and healthy life with her husband, Ryan Anderson. Although they got married while she was still in jail, Anderson has stuck by her side every step of the way. Now that better days have come, they get to be perfectly content where they are.
“Honestly whatever is making her happy, I think as long as she is happy then it’s fine,” junior Kavy Liggett said. “Especially like finding yourself after all that is pretty good.”
Rose Blanchard has a bright future ahead of her and it will be interesting to see what she does with it. There is quite a bit of life she missed out on in jail. Hopefully, she will make up for lost time now with everyone that supports her and her journey.
“I hope that she can grow from it,” Liggett said. “I hope that she’s able to do things she wasn’t able to do before.”
