Munchausen deputy Gypsy Rose Blanchard was seen in public for the first time since her release Thursday as she checked out of a hotel to begin her life as a free woman.
The 32-year-old was seen leaving a Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott in Chillicothe, Missouri, where she crashed overnight, shortly after being released from jail about 12 hours earlier.
The ex-convict wore a tattered sweatshirt, jeans and only socks on her feet. Her husband helped her carry her belongings – including two plastic bags full of snacks – to their silver Cadillac sedan, photos obtained by show.
The couple left the $150-a-night hotel around 11:15 a.m. in a convoy of cars including producers and a camera crew who had been following the abuse victim for her Lifetime show.
They had installed GoPro cameras in the car to capture their reaction.
The pair now travel 100 miles southwest to Kansas City, where Gypsy is expected to attend the Kansas City Chiefs' next game at Arrowhead Stadium on Sunday for an unlikely meeting with Taylor Swift.
Hours earlier Thursday, Ryan Scott Anderson, the teacher she married behind bars last year, was seen at 3:20 a.m. at the Chillicothe Correctional Facility in northern Missouri to pick up his wife.
His Cadillac sedan, with Bret Wrestling's “The Hitman” Hart sticker on the front license plate, showed up minutes later to whisk Gypsy away to the budget hotel for her first night of freedom.
The 32-year-old offender spent her childhood pretending to be a wheelchair user after Claudine “Dee Dee” Blanchard shaved her daughter's head, pumped her up on drugs and convinced the world she had leukemia and muscular dystrophy.
Their “unbreakable” bond ended when Gypsy escaped her twisted mother's control in 2015 by having her smitten internet boyfriend Nicholas Godejohn sneak into her Springfield, Missouri, home to stab 48-year-old Dee Dee.
Gypsy was sentenced to 10 years in prison for matricide but was granted early parole in September after friends and family members asked authorities to hold her accountable for the cruel abuse and unnecessary medical procedures she suffered while performing at charity events and fundraising campaigns were presented cynically.
Among those who wrote an impassioned message to the parole board was Titania Gisclair, a family friend who attended high school with Dee Dee and remained close with Gypsy throughout her seven years.
She prays that Gypsy will make room for “healing” as she leaves her years of incarceration behind her and begins life after prison as an unlikely reality star.
“Gypsy always talked about moving to a big city where she could fit in and get a job at Walmart like everyone else.” I have to say, “Gypsy, I don't think that's going to be possible,” Titania said told ahead of Gypsy's publication.
“I find it difficult that she is diving so deeply into all the courtship at the start of her journey, but I also understand that this is probably her best option to support herself financially.”
“The fact is she can’t work at Walmart or a department store because her story will always be out there.”
“I don’t think it will ever go away. I just hope all this attention doesn’t cause her to regress.”
Gypsy's media appearances and prison interviews include Dr. Phil, Good Morning America and 20/20, while Hulu, Netflix and Lifetime have all aired TV dramas based on her ordeal.
She appeared in the 2017 HBO documentary “Mommy Dead and Dearest” and has an upcoming three-part documentary, “The Prison Confessions of Gypsy Rose Blanchard,” airing January 5-7 on Lifetime.
The network's cameras will likely follow her every move as Gypsy enjoys her first days of freedom, which will reportedly include a spa, a shopping trip and a Kansas City Chiefs game on Sunday – where she told TMZ she hopes to meet Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce.
Gypsy Rose Blanchard was released Thursday after serving eight years of a 10-year sentence for orchestrating the murder of her medically abusive mother
Claudine “Dee Dee” Blanchard (right) convinced her daughter Gypsy Rose (left) and others that she suffered from various illnesses, including leukemia and muscular dystrophy. The abuse continued for years until Gypsy ordered Rose to escape her mother's murder.
The felon was released from the Chillicothe Correctional Center in Chillicothe, Missouri, in the early hours of Thursday morning
Gypsy Rose was kidnapped in a Cadillac limousine by her teacher husband, whom she married behind bars last year
The limo that took Gypsy Rose to a budget hotel for her first night of freedom bore the wrestling sticker Bret “The Hitman” Hart
Fans can look forward to more snippets on social media profiles set up ahead of her release, including a TikTok page – which already has over 400,000 followers – that describes her as a “public figure/speaker” and on her new e-book “Released: Conversations” linked on the eve of freedom.
She married Anderson, a 37-year-old teacher and wrestling fan from Lake Charles, Louisiana, last year behind bars after calling off her engagement to another man named Ken.
It is unknown whether she plans to move in with him or with her father and stepmother, Rod and Kristy Blanchard, who also live in the Pelican State.
Titania Gisclair, a family friend who went to high school with Dee Dee and remained close with Gypsy for seven years, was among those who wrote an impassioned message to the parole board
“The most important thing to me is that Gypsy gets the individual psychological counseling she needs to deal with her childhood trauma.” “She got little – if any – of that in prison,” said freelance writer Titania, 54.
“I preached it to her, to her stepmother, to anyone who would listen.” The best thing she can do for herself is to heal her inner child. If she gets the help she needs, she will be fine. “We hope for great things for them.”
Titania is working on her own project, which documents her early friendship with Dee Dee, which spanned from childhood to the partying days of her early 20s, when the two separated.
“People always ask how Dee Dee was able to accommodate all those doctors and family members. “But I understand it because I saw it growing up,” Titania told .
“She was a smooth speaker, very charismatic. And when she manipulated you, she always did it in a nice, nice way so she could get what she wanted.
“I found it strange that every time I asked about Gypsy she had all these new illnesses. But I never thought she would do the things she did to her. It only made sense in retrospect.'
Gypsy's story is one of the best-known examples of Munchausen syndrome by proxy, in which a person treats a perfectly healthy relative, usually a child, as if they were physically or mentally ill.
Dee Dee once tricked doctors into removing Gypsy Rose's salivary glands and was accused of a series of depraved lies, including that she shaved her head to make it appear she had leukemia
Dee Dee is believed to have suffered from Munchausen syndrome by proxy as she led people to believe her daughter was terminally ill in order to enjoy praise and perks such as charity-funded tickets to concerts and Disney World as a loving mother
Dee Dee shaved her daughter's head to mimic the effects of leukemia, manipulated her birth certificate to pretend she was younger, and fed her unnecessary medications that caused her to drool and eventually lose her teeth.
She reveled in the role of a loving caregiver, forcing Gypsy to use a wheelchair and undergo unnecessary surgeries on her eyes and salivary glands, all while collecting handouts and perks for charities, including a free trip to Disney World .
When doctors sounded the alarm in her native Louisiana, Dee Dee moved to Missouri in 2008, where she had a bright pink house built for free courtesy of Habitat for Humanity and told everyone that Gypsy's medical records had been destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.
When Gypsy was 14, a neurologist concluded that she was a victim of Munchausen syndrome by proxy, but did not feel he had enough evidence to report her mother to the authorities.
The former nurse even deceived her ex-husband Rod Blanchard, who remained close to his daughter but struggled to gain access to her when Dee Dee moved away and constantly found excuses to cancel his visits.
It wasn't until he saw his daughter enter the courtroom in handcuffs that the shocked father finally realized that Gypsy didn't need a wheelchair.
Dee Dee was found dead on the morning of June 14, 2015, after being stabbed 17 times in her sleep by Godejohn, 34, who is serving life in prison without parole.
Her murder was discovered after a Facebook account she shared with Gypsy declared: “That bastard is dead!”
Gypsy Rose (left) was given a 10-year prison sentence for plotting to kill her mother, while her online boyfriend Nicholas Godejohn (right) was given a life sentence
It was feared that Gypsy had been kidnapped until investigators traced the post to Big Bend, Wisconsin, where she was taken into custody along with her autistic lover, Godejohn.
The sheltered couple had met three years earlier on a Christian dating site and bonded over their love of Disney and role-playing games. Their innocent interactions eventually turned into conversations about BDSM and sexual fantasies.
Godejohn traveled to Missouri and the couple had sex in a movie theater bathroom while Dee Dee took Gypsy to see Cinderella.
Gypsy later recounted in a Discovery ID documentary how the assassination attempt was sparked by Godejohn's promise to do everything in his power to protect his “soulmate.”
“From anyone?” [I asked]he said “Yes.” “Even my mother?” [I asked]'He said yes.' And that's where the development of such a plan began [into] “An assassination attempt,” said Gypsy.
Godejohn arrived at the family home late one evening in June 2015 with a knife he had stolen from Walmart.
Gypsy let him in and then hid in the bathroom, covering her ears to block out the noise as Dee Dee was slaughtered in her bed.
She told ABC News that she wanted her mother dead “not because I hated her … but because I wanted to escape her.”
The twisted tale was told in the Hulu series The Act, starring Dee Dee, portrayed by Patricia Arquette (left) and Gypsy Rose, played by Joey King (right).
The question of Gypsy Rose's complicity in her mother's murder remains open. It is alleged she funded her murderous boyfriend's trip and provided him with the knife used in the 2015 murder
Gypsy pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 2016 and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Godejohn's lawyers described him as “a dysfunctional person with autism” who was obsessed with gypsies and forced to do their bidding.
He was sentenced to life in prison in 2019 for first-degree murder and armed criminal action after prosecutors convinced jurors that he was aware of the consequences of killing.
Godejohn will remain in custody at the Potosi Correctional Center in Mineral Point, Missouri, while Gypsy begins her new life after serving 85 percent of her sentence, as required by state law.
“We celebrate Christmas.” I have a Christmas tree, I gave her so many presents. “I actually overdid it,” her stepmother Kristy told NewsNation last week.
“Oh, we're doing a spa day too… we'll go get her a pedicure, manicure, facial, haircut, color if she wants, you know, everything that goes with it, and bring her shopping. “She can't wait.”