The Truth About Gypsy Rose Blanchard's Medical Issues

If you ask Gypsy Rose Blanchard to tell you her life story, you'd think it was pulled straight from a crime thriller novel. But her reality is far from fiction and is instead the subject of numerous documentaries, books, dramas, and more. Growing up, Gypsy Rose had been the unsuspecting victim of her mother, Dee Dee, who fabricated an elaborate web of lies to convince her and the world that she harbored myriad of health issues, only to find out that she was perfectly healthy. Upon discovering that her mother deceived her all her life, Gypsy Rose plotted Dee Dee's murder and ended up spending years behind bars.

Licensed clinical psychologist Dr. John Mayer told Prevention that Dee Dee's behavior suggested that she had Munchausen syndrome by proxy, now known as factitious disorder imposed on another (FDIA), a mental disorder that involves a caregiver making up illnesses for someone under their care, often to gain sympathy from others. Dee Dee's case was a classic example: she claimed Gypsy Rose had various medical conditions like leukemia, epilepsy, muscle dystrophy, and more. And while Gypsy Rose was in a clean bill of health, she was once persuaded that she was ill. "I did believe my mother when she said that I had leukemia," she told ABC News in 2018.

Interestingly, the only ailment Gypsy Rose actually had was something that affected her vision. But it was nowhere near as severe as the fabricated illnesses her mother led her to believe she had.

Gypsy Rose Blanchard had been treated as a sickly patient from childhood well into adulthood because of her mother, Dee Dee, and her diabolical ruse. As she grew older, she realized that she was perfectly healthy. "There are certain illnesses that I knew I didn't have. I knew that I didn't need the feeding tube. I knew that I could eat, and I knew that I could walk," she shared in the ABC News interview. Contrary to the plethora of health issues she was convinced she had, she clarified that her only real medical condition was a minor visual impairment. "The only thing I had wrong with me is I have a little bit of a lazy eye. Not all the time, but I have better vision in [my left] eye than I do [in my right] eye," she explained. "That's it."

But it took her a long time to stand up against her mother, chalking it up to sheer naivete. "I was so young, so me looking up to her so much and just believing she knows best — I didn't question it." In the Discovery documentary "Gypsy's Revenge," she also admitted that fear held her back and continued isolation made her situation even worse. "I couldn't just jump out of the wheelchair because I was afraid and I didn't know what my mother would do," Gypsy Rose said. "I didn't have anyone to trust." 

In 2016, Gypsy Rose Blanchard was slapped with a 10-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to second-degree murder. She confessed to conspiring with her then-boyfriend Nicholas Godejohn to murder her mother, Dee Dee. She was initially scheduled for release in 2026, but in a surprising turn of events, the Missouri Department of Corrections confirmed to the Springfield News-Leader that she had been granted parole, resulting in an early release. From December 28, 2023 onwards, Gypsy Rose is a free woman.

Speaking with Dr. Phil in 2017, Gypsy Rose expressed regret over what happened. "I'm glad that I'm out of that situation, but I'm not happy she's dead," she said. "She didn't deserve what happened. If anything, she just deserved to be where I am." But despite her tumultuous past, it looks like she's ready to embark on a new chapter in her life, as evidenced by her 2022 marriage to Ryan Scott Anderson.

Meanwhile, Titania Gisclair, a family friend, also told InTouch that she's optimistic Gypsy Rose would be able to turn her life around. "I believe she will, with the help of a lot of people, she will thrive and she will become a better person. And I think that that will help her to become that person," she said. "There are things that are coming once she comes out of prison. She is going to reach out into the true crime industry and be able to share her story."