Gypsy Rose Raymond Hall/GC Images/Getty Images
Gypsy Rose Blanchard received plenty of charitable donations while she was living with her late mother, Claudine “Dee Dee” Blanchard, but it’s not something she likes to think about now.
Gypsy Rose, 33, wrote about growing up with Dee Dee in her new memoir, My Time to Stand, which hit shelves Tuesday, December 10. Throughout her childhood, Dee Dee allegedly abused her daughter by falsely claiming she had numerous physical and mental ailments. According to Gypsy, her mother then solicited relevant charity organizations for donations.
“I didn’t know I could think for myself until I began to search the internet with an HP notebook laptop. I was told the computer was a gift from the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society one Christmas,” Gypsy wrote, adding that the organization thought she was 13 when she was actually 18. “We received a lot of help and gifts from charities along with government entitlements, like food stamps, disability checks, and Section 8 housing. It’s a fact that makes my skin crawl.”
Gypsy said she watched her mom “maneuver her way around the system, craftily researching” nonprofits and groups that could help their family.
“I didn’t know it was a scam until about a year after I found my Medicaid card with my correct birth date listed, when Mama became more physical and violent with me after I re-questioned her about it, pushing back against her storytelling,” she wrote. “The discovery of my real birth date was not my ‘aha moment’ per se, but it did act as a warning siren to be more alert and observe more closely.”
In June 2015, Dee Dee was found dead at age 48 in her and Gypsy’s Mississippi home with multiple stab wounds. Gypsy was subsequently arrested alongside her then-boyfriend, Nicholas Godejohn. She later pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
In September 2023, Gypsy was granted parole after serving seven years of her sentence, and she was released from prison in December 2023. Godejohn, meanwhile, was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.
Earlier this year, Gypsy announced that she is pregnant with her first baby with Ken Urker. She and Urker met while she was still incarcerated through a prison pen pals program. After they split, she married Ryan Scott Anderson in 2022 during her time behind bars, but she filed for divorce in April. Later that month, she confirmed that she was back together with her former fiancé Urker.
Gypsy Rose Blanchard is opening up about exploring her sexuality while serving time in prison for the 2015 murder of her mom, Clauddine “Dee Dee” Blanchard. “A big part of womanhood is learning to become comfortable with their sexuality, and for years I wasn’t,” Gypsy, 32, said on the Monday, June 10, episode of Lifetime’s […]
In the book, Gypsy revealed that her first sonogram was scheduled for the ninth anniversary of her mother’s death, which she previously marked by speaking aloud to her late mom.
“Whether it’s a message, a sign, or the balance of the universe (or all three), what had been a date defined by scandal and horror and sadness beyond comprehension has now become a day of excitement, joy, and celebration of life itself,” she wrote. “With one phone call and a calendar appointment, a day of darkness has been transformed into a day of light.”
My Time to Stand is out now.