When Gypsy was eight years old,
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.
Gypsy Rose and Dee Dee Blanchard. When she turned 5, Dee Dee declared Gypsy could no longer walk, because she had muscular dystrophy and epilepsy. She put her daughter in a wheelchair. "I [thought I] was paralyzed from the waist down," Gypsy says in the Discovery ID special.
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.
According to Gypsy Rose, she knew she could walk and eat real food, but that was it. Per the fascinating Buzzfeed article that inspired The Act (the author, Michelle Dean, is the co-creator of the show):
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."
"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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The show cuts to Gypsy waking up from the procedure, her mouth bloodied and bruised-and completely toothless. To make matters worse, Gypsy must later be honored at a Child Of The Year ceremony (later, Dee Dee surprises Gypsy with a new set of teeth, just moments before she was supposed to go on stage).
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.
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.
LIVINGSTON COUNTY, Mo. — Gypsy Rose Blanchard has tied the knot with Louisianan Ryan Scott Anderson despite still serving her 10-year prison sentence. The Livingston County Recorder of Deeds verified the marriage certificate between Blanchard, 30, and Anderson, 36, on July 21, 2022.
Traditionally, traveller kids leave education after primary school in order to learn 'traditional skills' at home. For boys, this means trades such as bricklaying or tree-cutting, as well as learning to do odd jobs.
Experts believe Dee Dee had a mental illness known as Munchausen syndrome by proxy (also called factitious disorder imposed on another), which made her fabricate her daughter's ill health in order to receive attention and sympathy for taking care of a sick child.
As of the The Act's premiere in March 2019, the real Gypsy Rose is 27. She told Dr. Phil in a 2017 interview that she didn't discover her mother's secrets until she was 19 and some paperwork didn't add up. She'd found her real birth certificate — the 1991 one — and asked her mom about it.
Gypsy told him she had 30 different procedures, including multiple eye, leg and throat surgeries. Her salivary glands were also removed.
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.
According to her testimony at Nick's trial, Gypsy hoped that Dee Dee and her boyfriend would hit it off, and she'd allow the pair to date. Although he traveled from Big Bend, Wisconsin, to Springfield, Missouri, the meetup didn't go as planned, but she did sneak off to have sex with him in the handicap bathroom.