Gypsy Rose Blanchard

Gypsy-Rose Alcida Blanchard-Anderson (born July 27, 1991) is a victim of child abuse and Munchausen syndrome by proxy, an American author, advocate and activist for Munchausen syndrome by proxy victims, who was convicted of second-degree murder for the death of her mother, Dee Dee Blanchard, and sentenced to ten years in prison.

Blanchard was born on July 27, 1991, to 24-year-old Clauddine "Dee Dee" Blanchard and 17-year-old Rod Blanchard.

Her mother first began asserting that Gypsy-Rose had an array of different health issues from infancy.

Her mother had told her that she had muscular dystrophy and needed a walker.

When she was around seven or eight years old, she was involved in a minor motorcycle accident with her grandfather, in which she obtained a minor knee abrasion.

After this, Dee Dee had told her that she needed a wheelchair.

After Hurricane Katrina destroyed their Louisiana home, Dee Dee and Gypsy-Rose lived in a rented home in Aurora in southwestern Missouri.

Dee Dee seems to have at least once forged a copy of Gypsy-Rose's birth certificate, changing her birthdate to 1995 to bolster claims that she was still a teenager; Gypsy-Rose said in a later interview that for 14 years, she was unsure of her real age.

Dee Dee sometimes also claimed that the original birth certificate was destroyed during the post-Katrina flooding.

Dee Dee did keep another copy with Gypsy's true birthdate.

Gypsy recalls seeing it during one of their hospital visits and becoming confused; Dee Dee told her it was a misprint.

Gypsy-Rose had attended science fiction and fantasy conventions since 2001, sometimes in costume since she could blend into their diverse and inclusive communities in her wheelchair.

During their time there, Gypsy-Rose was honored by the Oley Foundation, which advocates for the rights of feeding-tube recipients, as its 2007 Child of the Year.

The whole time Gypsy knew she didn’t need the feeding tube and knew she could walk.

In 2008, Habitat for Humanity built them a small home with a wheelchair ramp and hot tub as part of a larger project on the north side of Springfield, to the east, and the two moved there.

The story of a single mother with a severely disabled daughter forced to flee Katrina's devastation received considerable local media attention, and the community often pitched in to help the woman who now went by Clauddinnea Blancharde, and whom they knew as Dee Dee.

Many people who met Gypsy-Rose were charmed by her.

Her 4 ft height, nearly toothless mouth, large glasses, and high, childlike voice reinforced the perception that she had all the problems her mother and she claimed they had.

Dee Dee regularly shaved Gypsy-Rose's head to mimic the hairless appearance of a chemotherapy patient, allegedly telling her that since her medication would eventually cause her hair to fall out, it was best to shave it in advance; Gypsy-Rose often wore wigs or hats to cover her baldness.

When they left the house, Dee Dee often took an oxygen tank and feeding tube with them; Gypsy-Rose was fed the children's liquid nutrition supplement PediaSure well into her 20s.

Dee Dee used physical abuse to control her daughter, always holding her hand in the presence of others.

When Gypsy-Rose said something that suggested she was not genuinely sick or seemed beyond her purported mental capacity, she recalls that her mother would squeeze her hand very tightly.

When the two were alone, Dee Dee struck her with her open hands or a coat hanger.

At a 2011 event, she made what may have been an escape attempt that ended when her mother found her in a hotel room with a man she had met online.

Again Dee Dee produced the paperwork giving Gypsy-Rose's false, younger birthdate and threatened to inform the police.

Gypsy-Rose claims that afterward, Dee Dee smashed her computer with a hammer and threatened to do the same to her fingers if she ever snuck out again; Gypsy claims chained and handcuffed to her bed for two weeks, however, no handcuffs, leash or chains were found in the home.

Dee Dee later told Gypsy-Rose that she had filed paperwork with the police claiming that Gypsy-Rose was mentally incompetent, leading her to believe that if she attempted to go to the police for help, they would not believe her.

Sometime around 2012, Gypsy-Rose, who continued to use the Internet and phone freely, made contact online with Nicholas Godejohn, a man around her age from Big Bend, Wisconsin, whom she said she had met on a Christian singles website.

Godejohn has a criminal record for indecent exposure and a history of mental illness, sometimes reported as dissociative identity disorder.

He is also on the autism spectrum.

In 2014, Gypsy-Rose confided to 23-year-old neighbor Aleah Woodmansee (who, unaware that Gypsy-Rose was closer to her own age, considered herself a "big sister"), that she and Godejohn had discussed eloping and had even chosen names for potential children.

Gypsy-Rose, who had five separate Facebook accounts, and Godejohn flirted online, their exchanges sometimes using BDSM elements, which she has since claimed was more what he was interested in.

Woodmansee tried to talk her out of it, still thinking Gypsy-Rose was too young and possibly being taken advantage of by a sexual predator.

She considered Gypsy-Rose's plans just "fantasies and dreams and nothing like this would ever really take place".

Despite Dee Dee's efforts to prevent her from using the Internet, which went as far as destroying her daughter's phone and laptop, Gypsy-Rose maintained contact with Woodmansee, who saved printouts of her posts, until 2014.

The next year, Gypsy-Rose arranged and paid for Godejohn to travel to Springfield.

She planned to pretend to meet Godejohn for the first time at a movie theater with her mother, then appear to strike up a relationship based on the supposed chance encounter.

Following her mother's death, Blanchard gained international notoriety, and her story was eventually adapted into a Hulu limited series, The Act (2019).

She was released on parole in December 2023, after serving eight years.

Following her release, Blanchard has stated she wants to be an advocate for victims of factitious disorder imposed on another, previously called Münchausen Syndrome by Proxy (MSbP) and has made numerous media appearances.