When she did, she told BuzzFeed reporter Michelle Dean that she had been able to research Munchausen syndrome by proxy on prison computers, and her mother had every symptom.
Gypsy's illnesses were fake, but Dee Dee's was real.
According to a search warrant obtained by the Springfield News-Leader, authorities received information that Dee Dee was diabetic and had obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
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.
Dee Dee alleged that Gypsy had sleep apnea, a disorder than causes people to stop breathing or to use shallow breathing during sleep, when she was just 3 months old. Then, she claimed she had severe asthma, a chronic disease that's common in children, and causes the walls of someone's airways to become inflamed.
But, according to a 2016 BuzzFeed News investigation on the true story, it's unclear whether Gypsy's teeth were rotting because of poor dental hygiene, malnutrition, or the medications she didn't need—or a combination of all three. Gypsy says a medication called Tegretol for epilepsy caused her "teeth to crumble."
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.
Experts believe Dee Dee's behavior stemmed from the mental disorder Munchausen syndrome by proxy; because Dee Dee wanted to be a caretaker, she feigned and induced illness in her daughter. The truth about Gypsy and her mother only came out after Gypsy arranged for an online boyfriend to murder Dee Dee in 2015.
Gypsy told him she had 30 different procedures, including multiple eye, leg and throat surgeries. Her salivary glands were also removed. "You have been cut open. You had parts taken out of you.
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.
Factitious disorder imposed on another (previously called Munchausen syndrome by proxy) is when someone falsely claims that another person has physical or psychological signs or symptoms of illness, or causes injury or disease in another person with the intention of deceiving others.
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.
As for her teeth, they did rot and were subsequently removed, likely due to the removal of Gypsy's salivary glands. According to Gypsy, her mother used a numbing agent to numb her gums, causing her to drool, which helped convince doctors to remove the glands.
Gypsy Blanchard used a wheelchair, allegedly mentally and physically disabled from a host of ailments, including a childhood bout of leukemia, muscular dystrophy, a seizure condition and asthma. As BuzzFeed reported in 2016, Dee Dee told friends and family the teenager Gypsy had the mind of a 7-year-old.
In Hulu's new show, The Act, Dee Dee Blanchard says her daughter Gypsy Rose has a sugar allergy, in addition to many other health issues. Dee Dee says Gypsy's sugar allergy is so severe that it could kill her-but it turns out, Gypsy has no such allergy.
Yes. Fact-checking The Act revealed this to be true. 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).
The media in Springfield soon reported the truth of the Blanchards' lives: that Gypsy had never been sick and had always been able to walk, but her mother had made her pretend otherwise, using physical abuse to control her.
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.
"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 lost her virginity to him in a movie theater bathroom.
This particularly extraordinary moment from The Act's fifth episode is played out just how it happened in real life.
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.
Dee Dee's ex-husband and Gypsy's father Rod Blanchard told Buzzfeed that he paid Dee Dee $1200 in child support every month even after Gypsy turned 18 because he believed she still needed full-time care. “There was never a question whether or not I was going to stop paying,” Rod said.
Before long, the girl's teeth get so bad that she started bleeding while brushing them and one eventually fell out in the series. That led her mother to have a dentist extract all but four of Gypsy's teeth.
Gypsy says she believed one of her mother's illness claims: "I did believe my mother when she said that I had leukemia,” she said in her interview with 20/20, but without any real medical records confirming that diagnosis, no one knows for sure (Dee Dee claims that most of Gypsy's medical records were lost in Hurricane ...
In addition to being told she had leukemia, muscular dystrophy and epilepsy, Gypsy Rose Blanchard never even knew her real age.