Did Gypsy Get Fake Teeth? Yes. In both the Hulu series and in reality, Gypsy ended up with fake teeth to replace the ones she lost.
“Because I was taking lots of medications, and Mom said that they were for cancer, and she would shave my hair off and said, 'It's going to fall out anyway, so let's keep it nice and neat. '” As for her teeth, they did rot and were subsequently removed, likely due to the removal of Gypsy's salivary glands.
We also learn that Gypsy had her salivary glands removed, but we don't know when. The records were “lost in Katrina.” From there, Dee Dee decides to have all of Gypsy's teeth removed after dentists find one rotting away in her mouth.
When Gypsy was a child, her mom Dee Dee told her that she suffered from leukemia and a host of other health issues. Gypsy revealed in a 20/20 interview that the only medical condition she actually has is a lazy eye.
Hulu's "The Act" is based on Gypsy Rose Blanchard, who is currently serving a 10-year sentence in a Missouri prison. Gypsy will be eligible for parole in 2023, when she's 32 years old. She is currently 27, though her real age was actually a mystery to her for most of her life—her mom Dee Dee kept it a secret from her.
"It is possible that Gypsy Rose presents with puberphonia (high-pitched voice after birth), a class of psychogenic voice disorders," says Jayne Latz, an executive communication coach and president and founder of Corporate Speech Solutions.
Gypsy never thought she was going to get caught
She was also seen expressing immediate regret at the murder of her mother, and was desperately attempting to cover her up.
While under the ever-watchful care of her mother, Gypsy was often bald because Dee Dee would regularly shave her hair so her daughter would look sick. Save for the time-hopped finale episode, Infinity doesn't have hair either. There's even a scene in which Nana is seen shaving her head.
The meeting did not go as planned—Dee Dee hated Godejohn—but Gypsy was still able to sneak away and lose her virginity to Godejohn in a bathroom stall, according to her testimony at his trial. According to ABC News, Dee Dee punished Gypsy after the movie theater incident.
Today, Gypsy Rose is almost unrecognizable as the same wheelchair-bound meek young girl who doctors and neighbors saw before her mother's death. She has false teeth where hers were previously removed and her hair is now grown out, whereas before Dee Dee had convinced her to keep it shaved off.
Dee Dee Blanchard kept Gypsy's head shaved and forced her to use a wheelchair even though there was nothing wrong with her legs. Dee Dee Blanchard also convinced a physician to put a feeding tube into Gypsy and would tell people that Gypsy was mentally incompetent.
Gypsy recalls that afterward, Dee Dee smashed her computer with a hammer and threatened to do the same to her fingers if she ever tried to escape again; she also kept Gypsy leashed and handcuffed to her bed for two weeks.
In 2010, Dee Dee was telling everyone that Gypsy Rose was 14, but she was actually 19 years old. By then, she knew she wasn't as sick as her mother claimed — as she was well aware that she could walk.
When Gypsy's teeth rotted — perhaps due to her medications, missing salivary glands or neglect — they were pulled out. Yet the truth was that Gypsy could walk, didn't need a feeding tube and did not have cancer. Her head was bald only because her mother shaved off her hair.
In real life, Gypsy did actually have a feeding tube inserted into her body, according to Michelle's Dean's article for BuzzFeed News, which served as the basis for "The Act." On the show, Gypsy's characters teeth rot, and she's forced to have them all removed.
Experts say that Gypsy Rose was the victim of a condition previously known as Munchausen syndrome by proxy—now referred to as factitious disorder imposed on another (FDIA)—a mental health disorder where a caregiver makes up or causes an illness or injury to a person under their care for attention and sympathy.
Gypsy claimed that Dee Dee tied her to the bed for two weeks after she tried to run away. The difference from the TV show is that it only happened once in real life (after running away to be with the guy she met at the sci-fi convention). Gypsy said that she was starved and terrified.
And immediately after treating her like a literal child, Dee Dee is angry right back because Gypsy has started her period early. The offense was apparently that Gypsy didn't immediately alert her mother to this fact. Also, it's not exactly as if Dee Dee has made Gypsy very self sufficient after all these years.
The real Gypsy Rose Blanchard is currently serving a 10-year sentence at the Missouri Chillicothe Correctional Center. But she could be up for parole as early as 2024. Although The Act dramatizes her story, Gypsy won't benefit fiscally from the show—at least, that's according to Gypsy's stepmom Kristy Blanchard.
Rod and Gypsy have reconnected since she's been in prison.
"It's a hundred times better, honestly," he said. "We email each other. She can call me anytime, and she does. I'm keeping tabs on all of her accomplishments in school.
In essence, Gypsy was victimized for virtually her entire life by Dee's Dee's Munchausen syndrome by proxy, meaning Gypsy was confined to a wheelchair under the pretense of suffering from legitimate chronic illnesses and subjected to decades of tests and surgeries — when in fact she was nominally healthy and capable of ...
Gypsy told him she had 30 different procedures, including multiple eye, leg and throat surgeries. Her salivary glands were also removed.
Dee Dee had pretended to the world that Gypsy Rose was severely physically and mentally ill — perhaps for the attention, sympathy, or so that Gypsy would be more reliant on Dee Dee. Part of that ruse included lying about Gypsy Rose's real age.
Prosecutors cut a deal with Gypsy, however, because of the horrific abuse she suffered at the hands of her mother. In exchange for pleading guilty to second-degree murder, Gypsy was sentenced to the minimum of 10 years in prison.
Gypsy Rose is serving a 10-year prison sentence for second-degree murder (Godejohn got life in prison). It appears that Woodmansee is getting married. But she's still in touch with her old friend. Woodmansee was optimistic about Gypsy Rose's disposition after visiting her in prison.