(Gypsy Rose and her mom)

Gypsy Rose, a girl who has been abused, tortured, and lied to. She was everyone’s favorite handicapped child, according to the award given to her in 2009 for Child of the Year. But a few years later she becomes the sidekick to a murderer. 

Gypsy Rose was a girl taken advantage of by her mother Clauddine Blanchard or as many know Dee Dee. From the moment Gypsy was born Claudine, her mom, started making false accusations about Gypsy’s health and as she grew up Dee Dee just kept adding more. From having multiple surgeries to shaving her head every day Gypsy Rose was a normal girl who was taken advantage of.                      

(Gypsy Rose and Nick Godejohn’s prison picture)

Clauddine claimed Gypsy had many different disorders, for example at age 1 Clauddine claimed Gypsy had Sleep Apnea, then at age 8, she claimed she had been diagnosed with leukemia and muscular dystrophy which is when she told the doctors she needed a feeding tube, and a wheelchair. As she became older Clauddine continued adding more and more disorders to Gypsy’s health such as seizures, asthma, and problems with her hearing and her sight. Because of all of the problems, Gypsy had multiple surgeries on her eyes and had her salivary glands removed. Also, all of the medical problems Claudine claimed Gypsy had led the doctors to prescribe her a lot of medicine.

According to Biography.com, “Experts believe Dee Dee’s behavior stemmed from the mental disorder Munchausen Syndrome Byproxy; because Dee Dee wanted to be a caretaker, she feigned and induced illness in her daughter.”. This led Dee Dee to not only lie about Gypsy’s health but also lie about Gypsy’s age. You may wonder why no doctors ever started to catch on to Dee Dee’s plan, which was very simple. Whenever a doctor questioned Dee Dee about Gypsy’s health or they may have wanted to run some tests, Gypsy and Dee Dee would move. They would also not only move if doctors questioned her but, also if any family did.

(On the left is present-day Gypsy Rose and on the right is

actor Joey King who played Gypsy Rose in “The Act”)

Finally, in October 2012, Gypsy found a boyfriend on a dating site for single Christians, which led to a year of them both plotting to kill Gypsy’s mom. On June 9th, 2015 Caludine Blanchard was murdered. In 2015 the police tracked down the couple and Gypsy was sentenced to only 10 years in jail for secondhand murder. Finally, last year on December 28th, 2023 Gypsy was released.