Last updated on July 21st, 2022 at 09:17 pm
What would you do if you found out that your mother was lying to you your entire life? This is the question that Gypsy Rose Blanchard had to answer when she discovered that her mother, Dee Dee, had been telling people that Gypsy was terminally ill when she was healthy.
The story of Dee Dee and Gypsy Rose Blanchard is bizarre and has captured the nation’s attention.
Let’s explore the strange relationship between the mother and daughter and discuss why their story has fascinated so many people.
Dee Dee and Gypsy Rose Blanchard: The Picture-Perfect Family?
Gypsy Rose Blanchard was born on July 27, 1991, in Golden Meadow, Louisiana. Her parents, Dee Dee and Rod, had split up not long before her birth.
Rod was 17 years old, and Dee Dee was 24 when the couple got pregnant. Believing they were getting married for the right reasons, they also got married.
Dee Dee describes Rod as a drug addict and a nobody, but even after the divorce, Rod still stayed in contact with them and sent Dee Dee money for support.
On the surface, Dee Dee and Gypsy Rose Blanchard seemed like the perfect mother-daughter duo. Dee was a devoted mother who cared for her sick daughter, while Gypsy Rose was a sweet, innocent girl battling several health conditions.
Gypsy’s unfathomable optimism was infectious to everyone who knew her, and Dee was praised for her selfless care for her sick daughter.
However, there was more to the story than meets the eye. It would later be revealed that Dee Dee had been lying to everyone about Gypsy’s health and that Gypsy was healthy.
This revelation would turn the picture-perfect family upside down and lead to tragic consequences.
Dee Dee and Gypsy: The Real Family Situation
Throughout Gypsy’s young life, Dee told everyone that her daughter suffered from several health conditions, including leukemia, asthma, muscular dystrophy, and developmental disabilities.
As a result of these purported illnesses, Gypsy was forced to use a wheelchair, and Dee Dee fed her through a feeding tube. When questioned about Gypsy’s medical conditions, Dee Dee picked up their life and moved them closer to New Orleans.
While living here, Dee Dee continued to receive sympathy and support from the community and financial assistance and lived on Gypsy’s disability checks.
Hurricane Katrina hit just a few months after they arrived in New Orleans, forcing them to move to Missouri. There, they became a sensation and inspiration to families dealing with a disability.
While living in Missouri, the Make-A-Wish Foundation sent them on trips to Disney World and gave them tickets to see Miranda Lambert. Habitat for Humanity also built them a house with a wheelchair ramp and a hot tub.
However, under all those lies, the truth was that Dee Dee was a mother who forced her daughter Gypsy to pretend to be sick all the time. She shaved her head and eyebrows and made her wear clothes that hid her actual body shape.
Gypsy was not allowed to go outside or socialize with other children. Dee Dee told everyone that Gypsy had leukemia, muscular dystrophy, epilepsy, and several other illnesses.
The truth about Gypsy’s health began to unravel when she started to suspect that her mother was not being truthful about her health. As Gypsy got older, she realized that while her mother was telling people that she was 14 in 2010, she was 19.
Why Did Dee Dee Lie About Gypsy’s Health?
There are many theories on why Dee Dee Blanchard lied about her daughter’s health. One approach is that she suffered from Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a disorder where a caregiver fabricates or induces illness in someone under their care.
It is also possible that Dee Dee lied about Gypsy’s health to receive sympathy and financial assistance from the community. Whatever the reason, it is clear that Dee Dee went to great lengths to make people believe that her daughter was sick when she was healthy.
She had developed this talent throughout the years of lying to friends, family, and acquaintances.
The Consequences of Dee Dee’s Lies
Over time, as Gypsy realized the gravity of her situation and the lies her mother had been telling, she started to rebel. She began to sneak out of the house and meet boys without her mother’s knowledge. By this time, she knew she could walk and took many opportunities to flee the situation.
At 19, she met a boy named Nicholas Godejohn online, and the two started a secret relationship. Godejohn has a criminal history of indecent exposure and mental illness, but that didn’t stop Gypsy from falling in love with him.
In June 2015, after years of planning, Gypsy and Godejohn carried out Dee Dee’s murder. Godejohn stabbed her while Gypsy listened in the next room, then the couple fled to Godejohn’s house in Wisconsin.
A few days later, Gypsy left a cryptic message on Dee Dee’s Facebook post, mentioning that Dee had passed. While she didn’t intend to get caught, she wanted her mother’s body to be discovered.
As a result, Gypsy and Godejohn were arrested and charged with first-degree murder.
In 2016, Gypsy pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, was sentenced to ten years in prison, and is currently serving her sentence. She could be released as early as 2023. Godejohn was sentenced to life in prison for what he did.
Gypsy maintains that she is remorseful that she planned to take her mother’s life, but she is still better off now that her mother is no longer alive. Even in jail, she can live out her life as an average woman without having to pretend to be someone she’s not.
The bizarre story of Dee Dee and Gypsy Rose Blanchard is a cautionary tale of the dangers of lying. While it is still unclear why Dee Dee felt the need to lie about her daughter’s health, it is clear that the consequences of those lies were deadly.
